Claire Stevens's Blog, page 9

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

This was a complex, interesting novel about a girl who lives her life over and over again until she finally gets it right.  Imagine Groundhog Day with more Nazis and fewer laughs.

Ursula Todd is born on 11th February 1910 and dies with the umbilical cord around her neck.  Then she is born on the 11th February 1910 and survives birth but dies in childhood.  She lives her life over and over again, tiny facets or decisions changing each time to give different outcomes.  This is a fascinating look at how the seemingly insignificant choices we make in our lives have a huge, world-spanning impacts.

I really enjoyed the characters and although I listened to this on audiobook (which is always a bit hit or miss with me and the success depends an awful lot on the narrator) and I was gripped the whole way through.  

And although it is definitely a complex book, it was remarkably easy for me to follow.  And I'm not one for dense, literary novels.  Like, at all.  Kate Atkinson has an interesting way of writing about complex characters with emotional depth and a crazy plot line whilst remaining completely accessible.  If only more authors had this talent.  She did the same thing in Behind The Scenes At The Museum, another excellent book and one that has several parallels with this one (complex mother-daughter relationships, a study of how the first and second world wards impacted the lives of ordinary civilians).

The only tiny criticism I'd have is that I want to check I understood the ending correctly.  Also I got the impression that Ursula's mum has the same ability/curse as her, but if this is ever resolved then I must have missed that bit.

I finished this book over a week ago and I still can't stop thinking about it.  I really want to go back and read it as a paper book so I can flick backwards and forwards between lives.

4.5 stars

Waiting On Wednesday - The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

“ Waiting On Wednesday ” is a weekly meme where bloggers can showcase upcoming releases that we are eagerly waiting for. This week my Waiting On Wednesday pick is The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.  Here's the blurb:

Xiomara has always kept her words to herself. When it comes to standing her ground in her Harlem neighbourhood, she lets her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But X has secrets – her feelings for a boy in her bio class, and the notebook full of poems that she keeps under her bed. And a slam poetry club that will pull those secrets into the spotlight.

​ Because in spite of a world that might not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to stay silent.

The Leaving by Tara Altebrando

Not for me, I'm afraid.  This novel had so much potential - the premise is that six children mysteriously disappeared and eleven years later only five come back and with no memory of where they've been for the intervening decade.

There was so much promise and the author could have literally gone anywhere with the plot, but instead she meanders around for a while and then chooses the least interesting of all the possibilities as the denouement.  I was so disappointed by the ending, I can't tell you.

I really didn't like the characters that much, because, who knew, having no memory of your life means you don't have much going on personality-wise.  We only get the viewpoints of three characters (two of the returned kids and the sister of the boy who is still missing) so there are three people who could have had some input to the plot but don't.

There's one character who is all set up to have some kind of psychic ability, but then it turns out that she doesn't. And her narrative was the most annoying of all.  The author does this weird thing with spacing her words out all over the page, presumably to make up for the fact that no real plot or characterisation is happening.

Such a shame.  This could have been great but it wasn't.

2 stars

Waiting On Wednesday - Chemistry Lessons by Meredith Goldstein

“ Waiting On Wednesday ” is a weekly meme where bloggers can showcase upcoming releases that we are eagerly waiting for. This week my Waiting On Wednesday pick is Chemistry Lessons by Meredith Goldstein.  Here's the blurb:

From advice columnist Meredith Goldstein, a dazzling, romantic, and emotionally resonant YA debut about a teen science whiz in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who tries to crack the chemical equation for lasting love and instead wreaks havoc on herself and the boys in her life.

​For seventeen-year-old Maya, the equation for happiness is simple: a dream internship at MIT + two new science nerd friends + a perfect boyfriend = one amazing summer. Then Whit dumps her out of the blue. 
 
Maya is miserable until she discovers that her scientist mother, before she died, was conducting research on manipulating pheromones to enhance human attraction. If Maya can finish her mother’s work, maybe she can get Whit back. But when her experiment creates chaos in her love life, she realizes that maybe love and loss can’t be understood using the scientific method. Can she learn to trust the unmeasurables of love and attraction instead? 

My Not-So-Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella

So I'm having a bit of a reading slump at the moment and can't really seem to get my teeth into anything.  I picked up this book in the hopes that it would jolt me out of my funk.  It didn't, but it wasn't a bad book either.

The story is about a twenty-something woman, Katie, who lives in a grotty flat-share in London and has a badly-paid job in marketing and it's all a bit depressing, except that ever since she was a kid growing up in Somerset, living in London is all she's ever wanted, so it has to be good.  Right?  

The underlying moral of the story is that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.  Not exactly profound, but not a bad moral.  There are some really funny bits to it and if you overlook the bit where there is zero diversity and the author makes some quite disparaging generalisations about people from Somerset then there is some really engaging characterisation too.

The only thing I didn't really like about this book was the romance, which for a chick lit book is a bit of a problem.  The lead man is nice enough, except his main function seems to be to rescue Katie from her humdrum existence and this leads to literally the cheesiest ending to a book that I've read in quite some time.  Honestly, I prefer to see women rescuing themselves and making their own lives better rather than relying on someone else to do it for them.  I'm all for romance, but it's a bit sad when one person's happiness depends on the other person facilitating it for them.

So all in all this was an okay book.  I can see why Sophie Kinsella has made an absolute mint in churning out books like this.  Haute literature it ain't, but it can be pretty good fun.

3 stars

They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

This was a melancholic, thoughtful book that I unfortunately read at a time when I didn't much feel like being melancholic or thoughtful.

It's not to say this isn't a good book.  It's a very good book - I think.  The writing is very careful and reminds me a bit of David Levithan.  The problem I had was that I was in the mood for something a bit more ... plotty.  And given that this book is about two characters who are about to die, I thought I was on to a bit of a winner.

Instead, I got a book about two teenage boys who called by a mysterious government (?) agency to say that they are going to die that day.  This isn't a surprise to them - everyone who dies gets a phone call just after midnight to give them the heads-up that they have less than 24 hours to go.

The two boys take it in turns to narrate the events of their last 24 hours and how they reconcile themselves, or not, to dying.  It's quite a gentle book and I found it really interesting how their lives intersected with so many others.  I liked Mateo and Rufus and I felt like I really knew them by the end of the story.

Plot-wise, what I wanted to happen was for Rufus and Mateo to use their last day to infiltrate Death-Cast, get caught, thrown in a dungeon, escape, have a car chase, get double-crossed, caught again and then have a big showdown with the evil mastermind behind Death-Cast who would turn out to be like one of their parents or the president of the USA or something.

This is not what happened.

What actually happens is that Mateo and Rufus decide to have just a really nice day of eating in diners, cycling around New York and singing karaoke.  Which is fine, except it ended up just dragging on a bit.  Nothing interesting really happened.

And that would have been okay, except for the whole idea of Death-Cast.  How do they know who is going to die?  Spoiler alert: we never find out.  And I think I remember the MC wondering exactly the same thing.  I found it really hard to get behind the idea that people would just accept being called to say their number was up and no one would try and investigate exactly *how* this whole thing worked.

The existence of Death-Cast sets up some interesting philosophical questions about predestination and causality, but ultimately because we never find out how Death-Cast works, these questions are never really answered.

And I know that the nature of Death-Cast isn't the point of the book.  The point of the book is, if you knew you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do with it?  it's a parable about living your life to the fullest.  I get that.  But I just couldn't get past the whole thing of how Death-Cast worked.


I think if you're looking for a gentle, thought-provoking book, this could be a winner for you.  It wasn't really for me, but I could see how others might like it.​

2.5 stars

Waiting On Wednesday - Girl Made Of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

“ Waiting On Wednesday ” is a weekly meme where bloggers can showcase upcoming releases that we are eagerly waiting for. This week my Waiting On Wednesday pick is  Girl Made Of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake.  Here's the blurb:

For readers of Girl in Pieces and The Way I Used to Be comes an emotionally gripping story about facing hard truths in the aftermath of sexual assault.

​Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn't know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesn’t help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.

Waiting On Wednesday - Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman

“ Waiting On Wednesday ” is a weekly meme where bloggers can showcase upcoming releases that we are eagerly waiting for. This week my Waiting On Wednesday pick is Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman.  Here's the blurb:

Kiko Himura has always had a hard time saying exactly what she’s thinking. With a mother who makes her feel unremarkable and a half-Japanese heritage she doesn’t quite understand, Kiko prefers to keep her head down, certain that once she makes it into her dream art school, Prism, her real life will begin. 

But then Kiko doesn’t get into Prism, at the same time as her abusive uncle moves back in with her family. So when she receives an invitation from her childhood friend to leave her small town and tour art schools on the West Coast, Kiko jumps at the opportunity in spite of the anxieties and fears that attempt to hold her back. And now that she is finally free to be her own person outside the constricting walls of her home life, Kiko learns transformative truths about herself, her past, and how to be brave. 
​
A luminous, heartbreaking story of identity, family, and the beauty that emerges when we embrace our true selves. 

A Map For Wrecked Girls by Jessica Taylor

This was an interesting book and even now, a week later, I'm not sure how much I liked it.  I mean, I definitely liked it, but I'm still trying to work out how much.

Emma and Henri are as close as sisters can be.  They have plans to be mad old cat women when they're ancient.  In fact, they have their whole lives planned out.  Then Emma betrays Henri and the two girls relationship goes sour.  

And then they get stranded on a desert island together.

I've given it four stars because I think it was quite well written and it kept me guessing and I liked the toxicity of the sisters' relationship.

I think the romantic element with Alex probably wasn't necessary, but he was another facet that kept me guessing and the girls played him off against each other, so he added to the general poisonous atmosphere.

The dual timelines were good and I liked seeing the lead up to the two sisters falling out.  In fact, both time lines kept me guessing to the end.

The ending was wrapped up nice and neatly, so no room for a sequel.

Eh.  Four stars.  I liked it four stars' worth.  Maybe three.

4 stars

Paperweight by Meg Haston

Seventeen-year-old Stevie is trapped. In her life. And now in an eating-disorder treatment center on the dusty outskirts of the New Mexico desert.

Life in the center is regimented and intrusive, a nightmare come true. Nurses and therapists watch Stevie at mealtime, accompany her to the bathroom, and challenge her to eat the foods she’s worked so hard to avoid.

Her dad has signed her up for sixty days of treatment. But what no one knows is that Stevie doesn't plan to stay that long. There are only twenty-seven days until the anniversary of her brother Josh’s death—the death she  caused. And if Stevie gets her way, there are only twenty-seven days until she too will end her life.

This was a pretty good book about a girl who blames herself for her brother's death and who spirals into depression and an eating disorder as a result.

Disclaimer - I've never suffered from an eating disorder and don't know anyone who has, so I have no RL experience of this topic.  However, I thought that the subject matter felt quite realistic.  I liked the characters, although I didn't really get a sense of any of them really *suffering* as a result of their disorders.  I know something about the physical symptoms of an ED, and I didn't really pick up on that here.  I also understand that ED sufferers can be pretty tricksy in the ways they avoid eating and the way they battle their treatment and likewise I didn't really see a lot of that.

I've read quite a few books focussing on eating disorders, and this one was pretty middle-of-the-road.  It wasn't as harrowing or as socially-incisive as Wintergirls, but it wasn't as dull as others I've read.  It was okay.  In fact, it dealt with the notion of grief better than the ED thing, I thought.

The characters were fine and I liked the toxic relationships between the MC and her mother and best 'friend'.  I never really got a sense that Stevie was serious about her suicide plans and it felt like the author was pulling her punches in terms of the impact of this book.  The character I liked most I think was the psychiatrist.  She was really well portrayed and sympathetic.

All in all this was an okay book.  

3 stars