Claire Stevens's Blog, page 40

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Oh my word.  Now THAT was a book!
 
I just ... I can’t even.
 
Red Rising is the story of Darrow, a low-caste Red who lives below the surface of Mars.  He spends his day in abject poverty, mining the necessary ore that will be used to terraform the surface of Mars for future generations to inhabit.  It’s a grim life, but he and his fellow Reds have been sold the idea that they are pioneers, so by and large Darrow (rhymes with ...) is okay with his lot in life.  That is, until tragedy strikes and he is offered the chance to infiltrate the upper-caste Golds and change things from within, with plenty of betrayals and intrigue along the way.
 
Sound familiar?  Don’t let that put you off.  This book is amazing.
 
You know when people say YA/crossover?  I don’t think I truly comprehended the meaning of that saying until now.  Yes, I guess this is YA in that the protagonist is seventeen, but some of the situations (hell, most of them) are so adult that I think this is best suited for older YA really.
 
The characters jump off the page and probably, like, wrestle you to the floor and stick you with a pulseBlade or whatever.  I didn’t particularly like Darrow, but I don’t think I was supposed to.  I empathised with his plight, but he was such a mardy little git that at times I just wanted to slap him.  Suffice to say, he grows as the story progresses.
 
For me, the thing that rocketed this book right up in my estimation was the worldbuilding.  It is, without a doubt, the best worldbuilding I have ever read.  And I’ve read a bunch of books.  The world Pierce Brown describes is pretty bloody awful,
 
Plus, he’s amaster of ‘show, don’t tell’, which always wins in my book.  It’s just ...  God, I’m finding it so hard to find adjectives.  Okay, so there’s this part of the plot where Darrow is in this massive Hunger-Games-style arena with a bunch of Golds essentially playing an evil version of Capture The Flag. Every time someone gets injured, a medBot flies down to heal them.
 
So what’s a medBot?  Brown never actually tells us.  Not properly.  And yet I know exactly what they are.  Hell, I can even picture them in my head (kind of like the tiny, scuttling, insectoid robots that all the household appliances get turned into in that god-awful Michael Bay dick-fest, Transformers 2).  Pierce Brown gives us a made-up noun and the briefest of descriptions, and leaves you to fill in the blanks.  And it  totally works.
 
And medBots are only one of the awesome things Brown has created in this world.
 
So I felt the weakest element of the book was the plot.  Not the scene-by-scene action, which was amazing, but the over-arching plotline.  The whole ‘down-trodden hero from the lowest caste of society gets plucked from their lame life by fate and put into a fight-to-the-death situation in order to overthrow the evil hierarchy’ has been done a bunch of times now and while this was a refreshing version of it, this theme is so prevalent that it’s now a trope. 
 
But the thing about tropes is that they’re tropes for a reason.  They’re popular.  People like reading them.  There’s nothing wrong with them, they’re just not terribly original.  And actually this book did the down-trodden hero trope really well, so it was fine.  And when the least-best aspect of a book is merely ‘fine’, I think you’re onto a bit of a winner.
 
I’m currently reading How To Be Bad - a contemporary YA story - simply because I need something to reset my mind and calm me down a bit before I launch into the second episode of this trilogy.
 
4.5 stars

Waiting On Wednesday - With Malice by Eileen Cook

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine and it's a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting On Wednesday pick is With Malice by Eileen Cook.  Here's the blurb:

For fans of We Were Liars and The Girl on the Train comes a chilling, addictive, compulsive read about a teenage girl who wakes up in a hospital bed and cannot remember the last six weeks of her life, including the accident that killed her best friend--only what if the accident wasn't an accident?

Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron wakes up in a hospital room, leg in a cast, stitches in her face and a big blank canvas where the last 6 weeks should be. She comes to discover she was involved in a fatal accident while on a school trip in Italy three days previous but was jetted home by her affluent father in order to receive quality care. Care that includes a lawyer. And a press team. Because maybe the accident...wasn't an accident. Wondering not just what happened but what she did, Jill tries to piece together the events of the past six weeks before she loses her thin hold on her once-perfect life.

I love an amnesia book and this sounds like it's amnesia combined with an investigation into who tried to bump our MC off!  And will they try to bump her off again?  Yeah, of course they will!

The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

The Dead House is a wonderfully strange and slightly unsettling book about two very different girls, Carly and Kaitlyn, who inhabit the same body.  Carly comes out during the daytime and Kaitlyn comes out at night.  Set twenty-five years after a tragedy at a boarding school in which a fire killed three students and led to Carly/Kaitlyn’s disappearance, it’s put together like an investigation into what really happened in The Johnson Incident, as it became known.
 
The story centres around the mystery surrounding Carly/Kaitlyn’s existence and this mystery weaves throughout the book.  Are they a product of some paranormal incident, or are they really just one girl suffering from dissociative identity disorder?  The mystery pulls you along and there are a number of revelations that make you think one way and then the other.  Kaitlyn is kind of dark and crazy and you can never really trust what she says in her diary entries.  Similarly, all the witnesses to the incident have their own agendas and the whole thing left me feeling off-kilter, but in a good way.  There's also a nice voodoo-ish element, just to spook things up even further!
 
The thing I liked most about The Dead House was the format.  It’s told Blair-Witch-style in a found-footage format - transcripts of police interviews, video footage, psychiatrist notes and diary entries.  We even get post-it notes.  In a way it was frustrating because you never really get the full picture of what is happening, but it made it very compelling too.  There were parts of the book where I couldn’t put it down.  And knowing that the story doesn’t have a happily ever after ending immediately made things creepy and I had a real sense of build-up to the inevitable tragedy.
 
The style of writing varied throughout the book - obviously the official interviews were very formal, but Kaitlyn’s diary entries varied in tone as well and there was a real sense of her descending into madness in the run-up to the tragedy.
 
The only thing I wasn’t really that keen on with this book was its length.  It could probably have lost about a hundred pages without the plot suffering too much.  That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but there were definitely times when I wished the pace would pick up a bit.  Kaitlyn’s rambling got a bit wearysome at times.  I got that she was going through stuff, but I wished she’d just get to the point!
 
This book has been marketed as YA Horror, and while it certainly had spooky, spine-tingling elements, I would hesitate to recommend it to true horror aficionados.  It was more mysterious and eerie than properly scary.  Nevertheless, it was a fun read and worth taking a look at, especially if you like unreliable narrators and never really knowing the truth about a situation!
 
3.5 stars
 
I received a copy of The Dead House in exchange for an honest review.  Many thanks to Orion Children’s Books and Netgalley.

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

I started reading The Distance Between Us straight after finishing Dark Places by Gillian Flynn and I have to say it was like taking a long, hot, soapy shower after spending ages rolling around in filth and cobwebs.
 
The Distance Between Us is the story of Caymen, a girl who lives with her mum above the creepy doll shop they own in a beach town in California.  One day a rich guy walks in and although her mum has spent her entire life warning Caymen off rich guys, she hits if off with Xander and they start up a friendship which, and I really don’t think this is going to be a spoiler, turns into something romantic.
 
My enjoyment of a book always owes as much to the context of my reading it as it does to the text itself.  A book like this was the perfect antidote to the residual creepiness left over from Dark Places!  It was a light, romantic read that I finished in about a day and was the literary equivalent of marshmallow fluff.
 
The plot is a kind of will-they-won’t-they between Caymen and Xander as well as a reminder not to judge people by their wealth.  The romance is fairly tame (in the nicest possible way) and there’s nothing really to offend, so I wouldn’t have any problem recommending this to the younger end of the YA market.  Personally, I wished it had a bit more bite to it (and by bite, I mean sex), but that’s just me. 
 
There wasn’t a whole bunch of tension in the plot, other than a hope that Caymen and Xander would get together.  There were a few strands that I thought might become ‘issue-ey’ - the financial difficulties the doll shop was experiencing, Caymen’s mother’s ill health, the socio-economic differences between Caymen and Xander - but they didn’t evolve very far and everything was wrapped up in a neat HEA.  This isn’t a bad thing, but if you like a lot of angst and meat in your YA, this might be a bit insubstantial for you.
 
Caymen was a really great character and I really liked her.  She was super sarcastic and funny, using her humour as a defense mechanism.  She was loyal and hardworking and just generally a lovely MC.  Xander was nice too, although he did suffer from Rich Boy Syndrome (more cars than feet, unhealthy relationship with dad).  There was also this weird thing halfway through the book where the author is obviously trying to show us what a nice guy Xander is, despite his massive wealth.  Basically, a housekeeping worker in the hotel Xander’s family owns burns one of their guest’s shirts.  The worker is about to be fired (!) for this until Xander steps in and makes sure they keep their job.  It was supposed to show Xander as being  an amazing guy, whereas what it actually showed was that he wasn’t a wanker.  ‘Not a wanker’ isn’t the same as ‘totally amazing’.
 
I’d definitely recommend The Distance Between Us if you’re looking for a light contemporary read.  What it lacks in substance, it totally makes up for in style and it was a really nice palate cleanser.

3.5 stars

Waiting On Wednesday - Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine and it's a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting On Wednesday pick is Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick.  Here's the blurb:

Nanette O'Hare is an unassuming teen who has played the role of dutiful daughter, hardworking student, and star athlete for as long as she can remember. But when a beloved teacher gives her his worn copy of The Bugglegum Reaper--a mysterious, out-of-print cult classic--the rebel within Nanette awakens. 

As she befriends the reclusive author, falls in love with a young troubled poet, and attempts to insert her true self into the world with wild abandon, Nanette learns the hard way that rebellion sometimes comes at a high price.

I loved The Silver Linings Playbook and stories about quiet people suddenly rebelling are a favourite of mine, so this is well on my radar!

​What about you?  What's your Waiting On Wednesday pick?

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

About halfway through reading Dark Places, I posted a Goodreads update that said something like, ‘Grubby people doing horrible things.  Totally readable, though.’  Now, having finished it,  if I had to sum this book up in one line, that sentence would suffice pretty nicely.
 
Dark Places is the rather horrid tale of Libby Day who, when seven, was the only survivor when her brother went crackers and killed their mum and two sisters.  Now in her thirties, Libby has spent almost all the trust fund set up by well-wishers and is in danger of actually having to go out and get a job, so when a ghoulish True Crimes group contacts her to come and speak to them in exchange for $500, she almost bites their hands off at the wrist.  The group has an ulterior motive, though.  They believe Libby’s brother is innocent and soon Libby starts wondering whether they might be right.
 
So.  To start off, I have to say that this is a really clever book.  The plot is so intricate it made me want to stand up and give it a round of applause, but it’s not so complicated that you don’t know where you are or what’s going on.  Flynn has a way of writing that’s a lot like John Grisham - they can manage these plots that just throw stuff at you all the time, but write in a really accessable way that makes the retention of facts easy and keeps you up way past your bedtime. 
 
Dark Places is told from multiple viewpoints - Libby’s story in the present day is interspersed with chapters from other members of the Day family in the days leading up to the massacre.  You get a lot of information about their home life and history and also their relationships with other members of the community and this all feeds in to the whodunit - was it really Libby’s brother, or might it have been someone else?  There are hundreds of little plot points that come up in the multiple narrative that incriminate various characters and but then get explained away only to crop up again later.  It’s all cleverly put together, but not so clever that it comes across as being up it’s own bum.
 
So, the plot was great.  I have to say, though: the characters were not.  Really, really not.  I’ve read Gillian Flynn books before and she does specialise in writing really abhorrent characters, but she’s really outdone herself in Dark Places.  None of the characters had much in the way of redeeming features, and in fact most of them were pretty awful.  Properly grubby.
 
You kind of feel sorry for Libby Day - she’s lost her whole family, after all - and although she grows as the story progresses,  she starts off  not very likeable.  This is how she describes herself:
 
I was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs.
 
And then:
 
I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.
 
Nice!
 
The remainder of the characters are all pretty awful.  Libby’s mother is trying and failing to run the family farm and the children suffer from neglect and abject poverty.  Ben, Libby’s brother, is socially awkward and angry at his lot in life.  The two younger sisters are brattish.  Ben’s friends are all horrible and the absent father makes Homer Simpson look like the Dalai Lama.  Ultimately the characterisation, which was very well done, just gave me the creeps.  These people were so awful I just wanted to lock them all in a room and chuck a grenade in after them.  And I know that this is exactly what Gillian Flynn wanted me to feel, but damn.  Horrible.  Just horrible.
 
This is a really dark, twisted read that made me feel slightly dirty as I was reading it.  I would totally recommend it if you like crime thrillers, but just make sure you’re surrounded by happy people and in a secure emotional state before you pick it up.
 
4 stars

February 21st, 2016

So, I got some really nice Amazon vouchers for Christmas (thank you everyone!) and I've been spending them on books for my Kindle.  I do this thing where I keep my TBR list as an Amazon wish list and check it daily to see if any of the books are on a special 99p deal, and then I snap them up.  

So recently, my little TBR-wishlist project has been coming up trumps and I've now got a nice backlog of awesome-looking books.  Check it out:
​
​I can't wait to get stuck into them.  Now all I have to do is stop requesting books on Netgalley and keep away from my local library ...

After the Woods by Kim Savage

Statistically speaking, girls like me don't come back when guys like Donald Jessup take us."
 
This was quite an interesting book about a girl, Julia, who was recovering from being kidnapped.  A year previously, Julia and her best friend Liv were running in the woods when they were set upon by a guy, Donald Jessup.  In a frankly astonishing act of bravery, Julia sacrificed herself so Liv could get away and then, against the odds, Julia managed to escape too.  A year later and Julia still has gaps in her memory about the two nights she spent in the woods and Liv is starting to act mighty strange.
 
So firstly, I really loved Julia as a character.  She’d had one of the most terrifying things happen to her, but her strength and resilience and the fact that she still managed to keep a (dark) sense of humour about what happened to her were really great.  I never tired of her as a narrator and I think that’s what made this book so readable.
 
Also, there were some nice (and by nice, I mean nasty) toxic mother-daughter relationships.  Julia’s relationship with her own mother is kind of strained and slightly resentful, but it’s nothing compared to Liv’s relationship with her own mother.  Blimey.  The book was worth reading for that alone.  It was the kind of relationship where you read about it and think, ‘My life could be worse.  I could have a mum like that!’
 
Julia and Liv’s relationship was very … I’m not really sure of the right word to use.  Creepy.  Intense.  It certainly wasn’t very healthy, but I could see why they were still so attached to each other after the ordeal they’d both been through.
 
Where this book fell down a little bit I think was in the ending.  Obviously I won’t give anything away, but it did seem to end with a whimper instead of a bang.  There had been some great plot points scattered throughout the book and I thought they were all building up to something cataclysmic that was going to happen at the end, something to knock the reader’s socks off.  What happened at the end was kind of a big deal, but it just didn’t, I don’t know, shock me enough.  I didn’t really buy into the reason for Liv’s behaviour or the things she did and Julia’s darkly dry narrative, which I did really enjoy for the rest of the book, just didn’t do the events justice.
 
Still, it was a pretty good read and Julia’s narrative made it skip along nicely.  I just wish that the ending could have been a bit more spectacular.
 
3.5 stars

Cover Reveal - Murder Madness Such Sweet Sadness by Jamie Blair and Dawn Rae Miller

Jamie Blair and Dawn Rae Miller have today revealed the cover of their upcoming release, Murder Madness Such Sweet Sadness, and here it is! Looks good, eh?  Here's the blurb:

Haddie, Livie, Reggie, and Val. Four girls with secrets to tell.

A murderer is loose on the FU campus, and despite their best efforts, the police are nowhere near making an arrest. It’s beginning to look like Jackson’s murderer may walk free — until someone calling themselves The Fifth begins threatening each girl.

Suddenly, The Fifth starts revealing the girls’ darkest secrets:
Reggie is the campus drug dealer, Livie is a kleptomaniac, Haddie hasn’t remained a virgin, and Val is struggling with her sexuality.

With no option but to work together, the girls dive deeper into Jackson’s web of lies, and hope to unmask The Fifth while solving the mystery of Jackson’s death.

The more answers they get, the more dangerous life at FU becomes — not just for the girls, but for the people they love the most.

Which makes a girl wonder, who’s next on the murderer’s list?
 
Add to Goodreads
 
Kiss Kill Love Him Still on Goodreads
 
About the Authors
Jamie Blair-
Jamie Blair lives in Northeast Ohio with her husband, their two kids and a cat that broke into their house and refused to leave. She won a young author's contest in third grade, but it probably shouldn't count since her mom wrote most of her entry. LEAP OF FAITH is her first novel. She promises her mom didn't write one word of it. 
 
Author Links:
Website│Twitter│Facebook│Goodreads
 
Dawn Rae Miller-
Dawn is a Twitter and fashion addict whose favorite things in life are her family, gorgeous dresses, tea leaf salad, and French macarons. She splits her time between San Francisco and Northern Virginia, and is always up for a trip to Paris.
 
Author Links:
Website│Twitter│Facebook│Goodreads
 
Cover Reveal Organized by:
YA Bound Book Tours

Waiting On Wednesday - Girl In The Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine and it's a chance for us all to highlight the upcoming releases we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting On Wednesday pick is Girl In The Blue Coat by Monica Hesse.  Here's the blurb:

An unforgettable story of bravery, grief, and love in impossible times

The missing girl is Jewish. I need you to find her before the Nazis do. 

Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.

On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person--a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.

I love a historical fiction and this sounds heartbreaking and a really moving read.

What about you?  What's your Waiting On Wednesday pick?