Claire Stevens's Blog, page 49

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

“Dead girl walking”, the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret”, the girls whisper.


Lia and Cassie were best friends - locked in a toxic relationship where they battle to be the skinniest, Cassie through bulimia and Lia through anorexia.  That is, until Cassie is discovered dead in a motel room, having tried to call Lia 33 times before she died.  Lia is left to carry on the desperate struggle to control her weight, to remain ‘strong’ on her own.


I want to say before I write my review that I have no experience of eating disorders whatsoever, so I honestly can’t comment on whether the portrayal of how an anorexic thinks is accurate or not; all I can do is say what I liked about the book.


Gotta say, I didn’t especially ‘enjoy’ this book.  It was a compelling read, but I never once sat back and thought, ‘Wow, I’m having such a great time reading this.’  But then, I don’t think that was what the author intended.  What this book does do is shine a light on a subject that is frequently misunderstood and by its very nature secretive and for that it deserves a round of applause.


Wintergirls gives you all the horrific psychological and physiological effects of anorexia  but avoids sensationalism.  Lia is so when shecasual mentions her lack of periods, the languno her skin grows to try and keep warm and even the eventually breakdown of her organs and in a way that makes it all the more shocking.

I didn’t really connect with the characters as much as I wanted to, but I guess in a way that was inevitable.  Lia is literally a Wintergirl - frozen emotionally and physically, so empathising with her was tricky.  Her parents are emotionally distant, so there was no connection with them either and actually I kind of disliked them a bit for not seeing what was right in front of their faces.

One of the things I particularly admired about Wintergirls was that the author never tries to give a reason for Lia’s eating disorder.  She comes from a broken home and has fairly disinterested parents, she has a friend with an eating disorder, she has self-esteem issues as well as a psychological disorder.  There are a hundred potential reasons, or maybe an amalgamation of all of them or maybe no reason at all.

All in all, you’ve got to take your hat off to Laurie Halse Anderson for tackling such a horrific subject with grace and sensitivity and without resorting to sensationalism.

4 stars

Cover Reveal - Atlantis Quest by Gloria Craw

Author Gloria Craw has today released the cover of her upcoming novel, Atlantis Quest: Summary from Goodreads:
After all they’d cost me, I thought I was done with the Truss clan. I was wrong. Nikki Dawning, my mortal enemy, has been kidnapped, and I’ve been asked to spy on the Truss to find her. The pull between Ian and I has never been stronger, but he can’t help me this time. I have to rely on Theron, a bad-tempered cousin I didn’t know I had. To make matters worse, the people I trust on have been keeping secrets.


I’m starting to feel like a weapon in a war I don’t understand. How far am I willing to go to protect the descendants of Atlantis and the common good when I’m not sure what the common good is anymore?


Only one thing is certain. If I’m the next Laurel clan chief, I can’t let myself be manipulated…by anyone.

Add to Goodreads


About the Author

Gloria Craw grew up in the desert southwest, inspired every day by the wide skies and rich colors around her. After high school, she attended the University of Utah where she majored and got a degree in anthropology. These days, she lives in the ‘burbs’ just outside of Seattle, Washington where she is the shepherd of a husband, four daughters and a very hairy dog.

Website: http://gloriacraw.com/ 
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/GloriaCraw01 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gloriacraw15  
Instagram: https://instagram.com/gloriacraw01/ 
Tumblr: http://gloriacraw.tumblr.com/ 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwhcJptZBH9On7ShyrxYuJw 
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8247794.Gloria_Craw

Cover Reveal Organized by:
YA Bound Book Tours

When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman

This was a Book Club book.  Have I ever mentioned how much I love my book club?  I do.  We meet up once a month, spend approximately three minutes talking about the book we read the last month, eat loads of chocolate éclairs and then pick a new book.  I love my Book Club for all these reasons, but mostly I love it because we read adult books and some of the dreadful choices we’ve had recently only serve to reaffirm to me that the Young Adult section of the book shop is where all the best writing is coming from at the moment.

So when I started When God Was A Rabbit, I wasn’t expecting much.  Especially as how it’s been critically acclaimed (generally the sign of a dull book, in my experience).  Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I looked up a couple of hours into my reading session only to realise that I was halfway through.  The two hours had flown and I was really enjoying it!  I know - I was astonished too.

When God Was A Rabbit is a very sweet coming-of-age novel about a young girl growing up in Essex and then Cornwall with her parents and brother.  The story tells their trials and tribulations as viewed through the eyes of a young girl.  Elly’s life is contrasted throughout the book with the life of her best friend, Jenny Penny, who has a turbulent home life with her mother and her mother’s succession of boyfriends.  While Elly has a fairly idyllic upbringing, Jenny Penny has a pretty awful time of it.

The plot is split into two parts, the first part being set when Elly is a child and the second part when she is an adult.  The plot is really just a series of anecdotes - it doesn’t have a rigid structure and kind of meanders along but this matches the writing style and the general feel of the book, so in this way it really worked.  Really, When God Was A Rabbit is about love, in all its forms, and the people and relationships that define us. 

I loved Elly’s family in this novel.  They reminded me a lot of Gerry’s family in My Family and Other Animals - well-off, eccentric, laid-back, welcoming of bizarre strangers into their lives.  It made for a really lovely tapestry of characters and very pleasant reading.

The author’s writing style is very clear and accessible.  It manages to be very emotional without being mawkish and it’s also hugely funny, although many of the references will work best if you are British and have a fairly clear memory of what it was like to grow up in the 1970s and 1980s.

There’s a huge lack of tension in the novel, which was really the only sticking point for me.  Everything seems to drift along quite nicely and although bad things happen in the book, somehow everything seems to get resolved satisfactorily.  One of the bad things that happens is sexual abuse.  So, you know, pretty bad.  The narrator is abused as a child by an elderly neighbour, but when she talks about it she seems very philosophical about it.  She just kind of shrugs it off.  Very odd.  Maybe there was a layer to this that I just didn’t pick up on, but this didn’t really ring true.

In all other respects though, this was a very sweet book and well worth a read.  I wouldn’t necessarily have spent money on it, but definitely worth getting from the library.

4 stars

Waiting On Wednesday - Need by Joelle Charbonneau

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine and it's a chance for us to highlight the upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.  This week, my Waiting On Wednesday pick is Need by Joelle Charbonneau.  Here's the blurb:

“No one gets something for nothing. We all should know better.” 


Teenagers at Wisconsin's Nottawa High School are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need . . . regardless of the consequences. Soon the site turns sinister, with simple pranks escalating to malicious crimes. The body count rises. In this chilling YA thriller, the author of the best-selling Testing trilogy examines not only the dark side of social media, but the dark side of human nature.


It sounds a little bit like Needful Things by Stephen King (which I loved) but with a new slant for the social media age.  Intriguing.  I'll definitely be looking out for this one!

What about you?  What books are you itching to get your hands on?

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E Lockhart

I have to say, I really like E Lockhart’s writing style in this book.  It’s totally different to the way she wrote We Were Liars, so if the style of We Were Liars put you off, this might be one to check out.

The plot itself doesn’t have a huge amount going on.  In a nutshell, Frankie attends a very white, very exclusive boarding school for the kids of parents who are richer than the Queen.   Over the course of a summer she develops boobs and grows taller so that when she goes back to school in September, she bags herself a boyfriend.  She discovers he belongs to this all-male secret society and decides she wants in.  Trouble is, she’s a girl and Mr Boyfriend and his pals keep treating her like a dopey little girlie, so to prove herself, she decides to play a whole bunch of pretty amusing pranks on the school administration.

Despite the simplicity, I actually found the plot okay.  It reminded me of Con Academy (although this book was written earlier) and some of the pranks were pretty ingenious.

The pacing is a little bit wonky - there’s pages and pages of internal monologue, followed by about two pages (or so it seemed) of events and pranks spanning the period between thanksgiving and Christmas (about four weeks?)  It was never off-putting, but seemed a little rushed at the time.

Frankie herself is a pretty awesome character.  Yes, she’s a little bit Mary-Sue-ish (pretty, nice figure, intelligent, sporty) but she’s well-adjusted so she doesn’t come across as too annoying.  I thought the author did a decent job of portraying a girl who has definite feminist beliefs and also has a massive girly crush on her boyfriend.  Her internal dialogue (and there’s lots) was interesting and I was pleased about the resolution to her relationships both with Matthew and with Alpha.  Frankie’s relationship with her sister Zada was also interesting.  Zada has some firmly entrenched feminist ideals and doesn’t hesitate to lecture Frankie on what she ought to be doing, seeing Frankie as someone who can’t think for herself and in this respect she’s not all that different to Frankie’s boyfriend.  It was interesting to see Frankie navigate feminist beliefs for herself and work out what they mean to her.

All in all, this was a pretty good book.  Recommended.

4 stars

The Weight of Feathers by Anne Marie McLemore

This book has been a tricky one to rate.  I finished it earlier today and while my initial thoughts were positive, the more I think about it, the more some aspects of the book seemed to jar a little bit.

Let me say right now, I didn’t dislike this book.  There were plenty of things that I liked and despite the fact that I didn’t fall in love with it, I can totally see that other people will.

For twenty years, two performing families - the Palomas and the Corbeaus - have been engaged in a family feud.  Both families travel around, performing their shows - the Palomas are mermaids and the Corbeaus are tightrope-walking fairy-birds - and their paths rarely cross, but when disaster strikes in a small town they are both performing in, Lace Paloma and Cluck Corbeau are thrown together.

One of the things that struck me most about this book was the lyrical, magical prose.  The author is obviously a very talented writer and there were some parts that were so beautifully described that it really brought the scene to life.  If you love beautiful, flowery language then this book is definitely one for you!  At times, though, it felt like the prose got a bit much and there were times when really important plot points were happening and the prose just got in the way and slowed things down.

I really liked Cluck and I thought that he was very sweet and I loved that he managed to remain noble and retain the ability to love despite the appalling treatment he received from his family.  I liked Lace too - she had a lot of courage considering her situation.  Their relationship is by necessity a bit instalovey, which I always have trouble with.  There was definite chemistry between them but while their interactions were very touching I just don’t see how anyone can fall in love after just a few encounters.

I thought that the way Cluck and Lace were treated by their families, while terrible, wasn’t entirely believable.  I just didn’t buy into the Corbeaus being so superstitious that red feathers would lead to him being ostracized to such an extent.  They were really just ridiculously mean to him!  Why did no one (for instance, Cluck’s beloved grandfather) turn round to his mother and tell her to stop being such a bitch to him?  And the Palomas kicking Lace out on her ear for having a feather-shaped burn?  It was confusing because both families are shown as being really tight-knit, so why didn’t the Palomas rally round and help Lace find a ‘cure’ for her burn?

I like the idea of feuding families and I’m a complete sucker for forbidden love (terribly romantic!) and the author put in some really nice details, like the superstition about being poisoned if you touch a member of the opposing family.  In fact, there were loads of lovely details and the author has obviously put a lot of effort into the worldbuilding. 

All in all, this wasn’t a terrible book, but it didn’t really do it for me.  I wouldn’t tell anyone to give it a miss, though, because I can see how some people are going to absolutely love it.  I think fans of Laini Taylor and Neil Gaiman will especially like The Weight Of Feathers.

3 stars

I received a copy of The Weight of Feathers in exchange for an honest review.  Many thanks to St Martin's Press and Netgalley.

Cover Reveal - Cursed by Christina Bauer

Author Christina Bauer has today revealed the cover for her upcoming novel, Cursed.  Here's the blurb:


Although Elea’s the most powerful necromancer in history, she’s spent most of her nineteen years imprisoned in the Midnight Cloisters. Enchanted manacles keep her unique brand of soul magick in check. While the guards and initiates seem contented to torment her, the Cloister’s Mother Superior is obsessed with finding a safe way to destroy Elea, both body and soul. Escape seems impossible until a handsome hunter named Asher offers to help. Elea takes a chance and soon develops feelings for the mysterious stranger. However, Asher may not be who he claims. Then again, Elea may not be, either…

Pre-orders are now live at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Kobo.

And here's the cover!
AUTHOR BIO:
Christina graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School with BA's in English as well as Television, Radio, and Film Production. Her day job is in marketing for companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and Brainshark. Back in the go-go 90′s, she founded her own software start-up, Mindful Technologies. Christina believes that, upon close examination of Tolkien's text, it's entirely possible that the Balrog was wearing fuzzy bunny slippers.

Author links:
http://inkmonster.net/authors/cbauer
https://twitter.com/CB_Bauer
https://www.facebook.com/authorBauer
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/546812.Christina_Bauer

Cover reveal organised by Xpresso Book Tours.

All The Rage by Courtney Summers

You know all the ways there are to kill a girl? I do.

All The Rage deals with so many things that disturb and scare me, it’s hard to know where to begin.  Obviously there is the whole rape issue, but there’s also another terrifying issue - trying to tell the truth and having everyone call you a liar.  It’s such a realistic portrayal of rape culture and victim-blaming

All The Rage asks so many questions, but answers very few because the questions it asks really have no answers.  I just kept wondering if Romy’s post-attack experience would have been the same if she’d lived in a big city instead of a small town?  We all know that victim-blaming is a thing, but would she have been believed if the perpetrator’s family hadn’t owned the whole town?  And how much of a part did Penny’s email play?

All The Rage is the right name for this book - the author manipulates her readers so skilfully until you just want to jump in the pages and punch all the ignorant townsfolk.  And the thing that caused me the most rage?  It was the fact that this book is totally believable.  There wasn’t a single point where I thought, ‘No, that wouldn’t happen.  People wouldn’t react like that.’  Because it’s true.  Sadly we live in a society where the first thing people ask after a rape is reported is, ‘Was she drunk?’  Closely followed by, ‘What was she wearing?’

I loved the fact that Romy was flawed in her own way.  She was never painted as a saint either before or after her attack and this made her situation all the more real.  Likewise, the other characters were well balanced.  I totally got Romy’s mum’s position - that horror of having something terrible happen to your beloved child and not being able to do anything about it and the way she kept begging Romy to open up and let her in. 

There was some romance in this and I really liked Leon.  When he was introduced I thought, ‘Oh god, please don’t let our MC be ‘fixed’ by True Love.  Please.  Not that.’  Thankfully this isn’t Leon’s purpose - his abundance of character was mostly used as a foil to show up Romy’s sick numbness and to show how difficult it was for Romy to date or have a relationship in the aftermath of not only her rape but also dealing with the hatred of the town. 

The disappearance of another girl in town also serves to raise questions - if Romy had been popular or rich, would her story have been believed?  What would the town’s reaction have been if Romy had been the girl who had gone missing?

The only criticism I’d have of this book is that I found the narrative kind of confusing at times and there were points where I had to skip back and re-read a couple of pages to work out what had happened.  I get that because this is a first -person POV and Romy’s emotions and thoughts are completely shot that she’s not going to be the most coherent of narrators, but it did pull me out of the story at points.

The only reason this book isn’t getting a full five stars is because I reserve that rating for books I will definitely read again.  It’s superb, but I won’t read it again because (a) I don’t think my emotions could stand it and (b) I don’t think it would have the same resonance the second time round.  It’s definitely a book everyone should read once though.

4.5 stars

I received a copy of All The Rage in exchange for an honest review.  Many thanks to Macmillan Children’s Books and Netgalley.

Waiting On Wednesday - The Last Star by Rick Yancey

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine.  It's a chance for us to highlight the upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my Waiting One Wednesday pick is: The Last Star by Rick Yancey.  Here's the Goodreads blurb:

We’re here, then we’re gone, and that was true before they came. That’s always been true. The Others didn’t invent death; they just perfected it. Gave death a face to put back in our face, because they knew that was the only way to crush us. It won’t end on any continent or ocean, no mountain or plain, jungle or desert. It will end where it began, where it had been from the beginning, on the battlefield of the last beating human heart.

Master storyteller Rick Yancey invokes triumph, loss, and unrelenting action as the fate of the planet is decided in the conclusion to this epic series.

I absolutely loved the first two books in this series and I'm sure this one won't disappoint!  It's not released until 5th May 2016, so I've got ages to wait, but I'm sure it will be worth it!

What about you?  What book can't you wait to read?

Top Ten Tuesday - Dystopia 101

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by those lovely folk over at The Broke and the Bookish.  It's a chance to have a bit of fun compiling lists with a theme, because everyone likes a nice list, don't they?

This week the theme is: Top ten books that would be on my reading list if I taught Survival Skills in Post Apocalpytic/Dystopian Societies 101.

10.  Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi.  Okay, Aria doesn't contribute much to the survival, but Perry is pretty skillful.

9.  The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey.  Zombies that can think for themselves.  Not a nice thought, but this book gives some handy hints for survival.

8.  Hollow Men.  Further excellent tips for surviving a zombie apocalypse.

7.  The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  How to survive when you have no memories to fall back on!

6.  The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.  More of a cautionary tale, but still has some excellent advice on seizing opportunities when they present themselves.

5.  Allison Hewitt Is Trapped by Madeleine Roux.  Zombies again, but again with the good all-round survival skills.   Plus, violence.

4.  The Host by Stephenie Meyer.  Aliens invade and take over the bodies of your nearest and dearest.  What do you do?  Read this and find out!

3.  The Stand by Stephen King.  Okay, so you might not be able to rely on getting mystical visions to guide you, but there are still some great ways to get society up and running again.  Apart from the nuclear weaponry.

2.  Not A Drop To Drink by Mindy McGinnis.  Stuck in the middle of nowhere with a tiny water supply that everyone is trying to pinch off you?  Read this book and you'll soon know how to protect it.

1.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Because there is no one harder to kill than Katniss Everdeen.

What about you?  What literary subject would you teach and what would be on your reading list?