Theresa Smith's Blog, page 21

Pre-Release Book Review: Sisterhood by Cathy Kelly

About the Book:

As the waves crash on to a wild Atlantic beach, Lou is at a crossroads. For the first time ever, just giving up seems like an option.

In just one night, at her own 50th birthday, her world has imploded. Her mother has kept a secret hidden all her life. And it changes everything. Before Lou can take another step, she needs to get to the bottom of the shocking truth that alters who she really is.

Along with her sister, Toni, who is facing her own crisis, the two women sets out on a life-changing journey – one that will take them through Ireland’s wildest coastline and to Sicily’s sun-baked rocky shores. It will also take Lou deep into her relationships with her mother, her sister and her daughter to figure out how to stop pleasing everyone else – and carve out who she really wants to be.

Published by HarperCollins

Released February 2024

My Thoughts:

This one isn’t released until February of next year, but I am such a long-time fan of Cathy Kelly that when I received an early copy, I couldn’t wait until closer to the release to read it. Cathy is like honey on toast on a rainy day – total comfort. She’s not as prolific as she used to be, but the strength and warmth of her Irish stories are just as good as ever.

I’m at the same age as the sisters in this novel so what they were going through was relevant and interesting to me. I really liked both Lou and Toni, adored Aunt Gloria and Emily, despised Lillian – their mother, and as to Trinity, the lost soul they picked up along the way from the side of the road, she turned out to be a real treasure.

This entire novel just oozes warmth and has all the feels, all the way through. I enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend it as a pre-order if you are so inclined.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

Book Review: Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey

About the Book:

Maggie’s marriage has ended just 608 days after it started, but she’s fine – she’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s alone for the first time in her life, can’t afford her rent and her obscure PhD is going nowhere . . . but at the age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new status as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée.

Soon she’s taking up ‘sadness hobbies’ and getting back out there, sex-wise, oversharing in the group chat and drinking with her high-intensity new divorced friend Amy. As Maggie throws herself headlong into the chaos of her first year of divorce, she finds herself questioning everything, including: Why do we still get married? Did I fail before I even got started? How many Night Burgers until I’m happy?

Laugh-out-loud funny, razor sharp and painfully relatable, Really Good, Actually is an irresistible debut novel about the uncertainties of modern love, friendship and happiness from a stunning new voice in fiction, Monica Heisey.

Published by HarperCollins Australia – Fourth Estate

Released January 2023

My Thoughts:

I listened to this one, having picked up the audio book in a recent sale. I already owned the eBook (unread) but was looking for something completely different to my last audio book and this seemed to fit the bill. What an enjoyable read this was, darkly funny and so witty, it had me laughing out loud in my car over and over. The narration was fabulous, truly excellent, and caught the tone and intent of this novel to perfection.

Maggie’s marriage may have not lasted as long as mine did and she is certainly much younger than me, but I still found her story incredibly relatable. The emotions were similar, particularly the uncertainty that you face in those early days; all of this was captured with such blistering accuracy. I really loved Maggie, in all her messy glory. Don’t get me wrong, she stuffed up plenty of times and hurt people inadvertently as she moved through the fog of her newfound single life. But that just made it all the more… well, more.

This story was very human in its intent and so, so realistic. An absolute top read. I enjoyed every second of it.

Book Review: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

About the Book:

ALICIA
Alicia Berenson writes a diary as a release, an outlet – and to prove to her beloved husband that everything is fine. She can’t bear the thought of worrying Gabriel, or causing him pain.

Until, late one evening, Alicia shoots Gabriel five times and then never speaks another word.

THEO
Forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber is convinced he can successfully treat Alicia, where all others have failed. Obsessed with investigating her crime, his discoveries suggest Alicia’s silence goes far deeper than he first thought.

And if she speaks, would he want to hear the truth?

THE SILENT PATIENT is a heart-stopping debut thriller about a woman’s brutal and random act of violence against her husband – and the man obsessed with discovering why.

Published by Hachette Australia

Released February 2019

My Thoughts:

This one was selected as our December book club read. I have read one previous novel by Alex Michaelides, The Maidens, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This one starts strong with a compelling premise and intriguing mystery forming the bones of the story. I listened to this one on audio and found it to be quite gripping with its dual narration and short, sharp chapters.

However, early on, the character of Theo, the psychotherapist and one of the main characters, began to feel off to me. He was acting like a detective, poking around in Alicia’s life in what I could only term as an inappropriate manner. I’m not a psychotherapist, but I’m pretty sure his actions were not in the usual position description. As the story progressed, Theo became less psychotherapist in my opinion and more straight up psycho.

By the end of this novel, I was honestly only still listening to it so that I could: a) get my money’s worth; and, b) confirm that I was right in the absolutely ludicrous twist that I suspected the author was headed towards. I was right. I rated this book one star on Goodreads. There are so many plot holes you could fall into and never find your way out of. The twist, as I mentioned above, is ludicrous. There are significant problems with the execution of the plot in terms of the way the author represents his timelines within the story. Honestly, I could go on but it’s really not worth it. This book was rubbish.

So, will I read Alex Michaelides again? Maybe. I rated The Maidens five stars. I’ve read two of his books now, loved one and hated the other. I probably need to read a third to decide if he’s for me or not. So many people have raved about this novel and I’m sure when it comes time for my book club meeting, we’ll be divided. Or, maybe it will just be me on the hating side of the fence? In a nutshell, this book is why I don’t read psychological thrillers/domestic crime much. They often don’t live up to the hype for me. If it gets made into a movie, I’ll definitely pass on it.

Book Review: An Unexpected Ally by Sophia Kouidou-Giles

About the Book:

Powerful Circe, daughter of the sun-god Helios, is sad to see Odysseus, King of Ithaca, depart from her island, Aeaea—but her heartbreak is eased after dolphins take her to Delos, where she explores a new love relationship.

Circe has a strained relationship with her mother, Perse, but when she finally listens to Perse’s encouragement to seek out the amphibian god Glaucus, she’s glad she’s heeded her advice. Together, the two embark on underwater adventures, and Circe shares with Glaucus her knowledge about the healing and harmful power of herbs. While in Delos, she also meets and befriends Skylla, a local beauty with whom Glaucus is enthralled, although the girl is indifferent.

Circe eventually returns to Aeaea, but one day she learns, upon consulting her scrying mirror, that there is trouble in Delos that requires her immediate action. In the turbulent world of gods mingling with mortals, our heroine shifts shapes, flies, and uses her superpowers to reverse the course of evil.

In a tangle of love, hate, vengeance, and the final righting of wrongs, a cast of irresistible characters weaves an adventure laced with beauty and terror in An Unexpected Ally —a newly woven set of tales that brings to life ancient Greek myths and revives issues familiar to contemporary readers.

Published by She Writes Press

Released October 2023

My Thoughts:

I’m not going to spend much time on this one, it was a waste of time to read and the only reason I’m writing a review is to make one particular point: this novel is what you get when a sub-genre takes off, the market just gets saturated with novels about the same themes, characters and topics. That’s what’s currently happening with Greek mythology retellings. Every writer and their dog has a Greek tragedy in them, it would seem.

This one was less of a mythological retelling and more of a fan fiction washout. It was clunky and boring, entire chapters where Circe was just gardening and sewing and thinking about men with nothing at all really happening ever. And when something did happen, it was lame, and not at all like a hard hitting Greek tragedy.

I’ve read quite a few Greek mythology retellings and enjoyed many of them. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker remains the strongest and my favourite, the benchmark standard, if you like. I think too many of them have been written now and going forward I will only read ones written by authors I have already read and enjoyed. That’s about three authors, if my memory serves me right. I prefer my Greek goddesses to have a bit more grit and rage, and to be less concerned with their hair and their outfits. A solid no from me.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

Short Story Review: So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

About the Story:

After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude — and the true significance of this particular date is revealed.

From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan’s new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women.

Published by Faber

Released September 2023

My Thoughts:

I really like Claire Keegan’s work. I read Small Things Like These earlier this year and loved it, so when I saw she had something new in circulation, I rushed to download an eBook copy and read it immediately during my lunch break at work.

So Late in the Day is a short story, not a novella. It says something about an author when they have a single short story published as a hardback, I think. Keegan really is a quality writer though, quite a master at condensed fiction, be it short stories or novellas, she seems to be able to convey so much with the minimum of words yet the maximum of feeling.

This one is a snapshot of intergenerational misogyny and its effects on a modern relationship. Generosity, or rather, a lack of, is a central theme. The story is set in Ireland, but its relevance to other locations was potent.

I will endeavour to read all of Claire Keegan’s work over the coming months, but paced, so that I don’t devour it all and be left with nothing too soon.

Book Review: The House that Joy Built by Holly Ringland

About the Book:

The House that Joy Built is about the transformative power of finding joy through creativity, and offers a jump-start for anyone whose desire to create is flattened by fear. Fear of feeling vulnerable, of criticism and judgement from others, of not being good enough, of having ‘bad’ ideas, of being ‘too much’. This book is for everyone who has ever felt stuck creatively. It is for those yearning to write, and also for anyone who longs to create but doesn’t know how to find a way into, or back to their imagination.

Uplifting, powerful and inspiring, The House That Joy Built is an exhilarating, openhearted clarion call to experience the joy and freedom of creativity.

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia

Released October 2023

My Thoughts:

Holly Ringland’s first foray into non-fiction is a delightful read aimed at the creatives. Part writing memoir – that is, focusing on the parts of her life to do with writing, not everything else; and part self-help, The House That Joy Built is all about overcoming fear and doubt and giving yourself permission to create, no matter what your creative outlet might be.

As a creative person, I resonated with a lot of what was in this book. The inner critic – tick. The outer critic – tick, definitely had one of those holding me back for a long time. Self-doubt – always. Holly’s words within this book offer inspiration and a sense of not feeling as though you’re the only one to feel these things about creative endeavours.

I listened to this rather than read and I’m certain I enjoyed it all the more for that. It’s a tad repetitive – sometimes for emphasis, others just because Holly had a few particular phrases that she liked to use over and over again (example: inner country). This aside, the book overall is very inspiring and quite lovely to listen to, narrated by Holly herself, so it has that intimate conversation vibe about it.

Highly recommended to all the creatives out there.

Book Review: Beatrix and Fred by Emily Spurr

About the Book:

Beatrix is a loner. She has a love-hate relationship with her one friend, Ray, a hate-hate relationship with everyone else in her office and a genuine attachment to a stuffed canary named Horatio. She drinks alone far too much. Lately she’s been finding the edge of the railway platform dangerously seductive.

Her life needs to change. Then she crosses paths with an old woman who seems to be stalking her, and that’s exactly what happens. Eighty-something Fred is smart, earthy, funny and not the harmless elderly lady she appears to be. She is, in fact, quite literally something else. But what?

When something happens to Ray, Fred decides to reveal herself. And Beatrix realises she has some agonising choices to make.

Beatrix & Fred is an off-kilter love story wrapped in a satisfying layer of moral complexity and tied up with a ribbon of sheer fun. Warm, witty, more than slightly weird—it takes the age-old question of what it is to be human beyond humanity itself.

Published by Text Publishing

Released 29 August 2023

My Thoughts:

Beatrix and Fred would undoubtedly be the most refreshingly unique novel I’ve ever read. It was an utter delight, agonisingly tender, sharply witty, with a story arc that just kept on delivering the most unexpected twists and reveals.

I adored this novel and would have to say that it’s right up there now in the ever-allusive category of ‘favourite books ever’. Beatrix was not necessarily all that likeable in the beginning, and Fred was absolutely maddening with her stalking, literally driving Beatrix crazy. Yet, I began to love these characters with a fierceness as the story progressed, thinking about them when I wasn’t reading, wondering what was going to happen next, puzzling over the mystery of Fred.

If you’re looking for something different and completely marvellous to read and get lost in, Beatrix and Fred is the novel for you. There’s nothing else like it and I was obsessed with reading it at every opportunity that presented itself to me. I loved it that much I’m considering listening to the audio book version. A top read of the year so far and I highly recommend it to all readers.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

The Month That Was…

October

October was a blur. I had a work trip to Cairns tucked in there, which was nice, but I also spent more than half of the month unwell across three different illnesses, either side of the work trip. It was exhausting, physically and mentally. This led to two things: introducing myself to audio books, as there were times when I wanted to read, but was too exhausted, so listening proved to be ideal. The second thing, finding comfort in bingeing New Amsterdam. There’s nothing like watching a medical drama featuring random and highly serious illnesses to feel better about what’s ailing yourself. It works for me anyway!

The view from my 12th floor hotel room in Cairns

What Zeus has been up to:

Let’s just call this one: portrait of a dog on neighbourhood watch. Looks like he forgot his arms though. Or maybe he just doesn’t need them as he’s not going to be required to guard anything up on an enclosed balcony, and let’s face it, this is Zeus. He is known for many things, but guard dog is not one of them!

What I’ve been watching:

Movie wise, it was a mixed bag. The Book Shop was genuinely lovely, an historical drama I found on Britbox. You Hurt My Feelings and No Hard Feelings were both overrated. M and I were in accord that they were both not entirely bad watching, but just not that fantastic either – in a nutshell, underwhelming. So many movies seem to be like that nowadays.

In terms of TV, as I mentioned above, I’ve been bingeing New Amsterdam. And by bingeing, I mean watching nothing else but that. I am almost through the entire five seasons. I took a short break from New Amsterdam to watch season two of Wolf Like Me. That show is utterly bizarre in concept but also has this sidebar into grief and love that is just gorgeous, along with a dash of Aussie humour, which never goes astray. I really enjoyed this second season as much as I did the first.

What I’ve been listening to (new segment!):

I’m enjoying my newfound interest in audio books. I tried listening them a few years ago and just couldn’t get into them, but they’ve come a long way since then in terms of quality of narration. Weyward was fantastic, I couldn’t stop listening to that one, it was like a movie it was so engrossing and vividly atmospheric. A Kind of Magic was also very good, a memoir narrated by the author, a concept I really enjoy; I think memoirs might actually be my preferred genre for listening, which is strange, as they are my least preferred for reading! The Natural History of Love took me back to the bad narration I remember from years ago. Two out of three isn’t bad though.

What I’ve been reading:

I feel like it was a slow month for reading. Six books, nine if you count the abovementioned audio books. Three of these I read last week, but two were novellas so don’t go being too impressed by that weekly tally. It took me over a fortnight to get through Lola in the Mirror, and that proved to be a real stumbling block, in terms of momentum. It’s like I got stuck on it.

Four of the titles this month, The Ladies Rest and Writing Room, Ravenous Girls, Perfect-ish, and A Winter in New York, were review titles. Lola in the Mirror I bought based on my previous enjoyment of Trent Dalton’s books, and One of Those Mothers was my book club’s October pick. With the exception of The Natural History of Love, all of my books were four and five star reads for the month.

Even though there’s still one day left in October, I’m pretty much over this month so I’m sharing this with you tonight and looking ahead to November.

Until next month…good reading!

Book Review: Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton

About the Book:

A girl and her mother have been on the run for sixteen years, from police and the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat. They’ve found themselves a home inside a van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River.

The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you’re on the run. But the girl has a dream. A vision of a life as an artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen ‘Lady’ Flora Box. A life of love with the boy who’s waiting for her on the bridge that stretches across a flooding, deadly river. A life beyond the bullet that has her name on it. And now that the storm clouds are rising, there’s only one person who can help make her dreams come true. That person is Lola and she carries all the answers. But to find Lola, the girl with no name must first do one of the hardest things we can ever do. She must look in the mirror.

From international bestselling author Trent Dalton, Lola in the Mirror is a big, moving, blackly funny, violent, heartbreaking and beautiful novel of love, fate, life and death and all the things we see when we look in the mirror: all our past, all our present, and all our possible futures.

Published by HarperCollins Australia

Released October 2023

My Thoughts:

It seems as though everyone is raving about this novel. It’s been highly anticipated and all I’m seeing in my bookstagram feed is post after post about how amazing this is, better than Boy Swallows Universe, he’s done it again – you get the picture.

It took me weeks to read this. I found the first half of the book challenging to get into. Dalton has done a wealth of research in the creation of this, but it felt too much like a cleverly written, albeit entertaining, never-ending essay on the social welfare and housing crisis in Brisbane. There is a lot of info dumping initially and it got exhausting.

The second half reeled me in more securely and I began to enjoy it, the info dumping seemed to peter out and the story took over. Make no mistake though, this story seesaws between sentimentality and brutality repeatedly. The ending, specifically the chase through the streets of Brisbane, once again left me exhausted. It was like reading the script of a Harley Quinn movie. Again, entertaining, but a bit much.

Ultimately though, this is certainly an entertaining read that upholds Dalton’s reputation as writer who stitches his stories together with hope. I loved Boy Swallows Universe and Love Stories. Lola in the Mirror didn’t quite stir my heart strings in the same way as those two did, but it’s still a great read. The artwork prefacing each chapter deserves a special mention, it was excellent and did much to set the scene for each chapter and the story overall.

The 20/40 Prize 2023: Reviewing the Winners

20/40—a new independent publishing prize for fiction and non-fiction

Independent, non-profit publisher Finlay Lloyd has established a new competition to encourage and support writing of the highest quality.

In an environment where writers find it increasingly difficult to find an audience, Finlay Lloyd is branching out to offer a publishing opportunity for fiction and non-fiction prose works between 20,000 and 40,000 words through the 20/40 Publishing Prize.

Finlay Lloyd is dedicated to identifying and encouraging good writing free from external pressures such as reputation and the undue influence of market forces. In keeping with this philosophy, 20/40 entries will be evaluated by a judging panel that will read all submissions ‘blind’, with a focus on creative inventiveness and quality.

The judging panel for the 2023 20/40 Prize was Katia Ariel, Christine Balint, John Clanchy, Julian Davies and Stefanie Markidis. 

– 20/40 Finlay Lloyd Publications

The Winners for 2023

Kim Kelly’s Ladies’ Rest and Writing Room rushes vibrantly into the bustling streets of Sydney in the 1920s where two young women, each having suffered devastating loss, are thrown together by unexpected circumstances.

Rebecca Burton’s Ravenous Girls is a tender and lively exploration of the tensions and growing distance between two teenage sisters in the 1980s—the elder burdened by anorexia, the younger by self-doubt.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with copies of the winning titles for review.

My Thoughts on the Winning Titles

Ladies Rest and Writing Room

Offering a delicate balance between grief and trauma, the chaos and exuberance of Sydney at Christmas, 1922, is vividly realised. So much atmosphere, so much detail creating such a sense of place and time bursts forth from this novella.

The emotions of both Dotty and Clarinda are so on point, like a shard of glass embedded beneath the skin, I could feel their pain, their sorrow, as they each struggled with their own personal grief. Interwoven with this, was the mourning of a nation’s loss of innocence, juxtaposed against the overcompensation of living life to the fullest on the back of having lost so much. Not enough is written about World War one, the displacement that must have occurred after, a war on a scale not before ever seen, the loss to our young nation so incredibly catastrophic. Both Clarinda and Dotty struggle with this alongside their personal grief. Kim Kelly has always been able to balance her history with her characters internal mechanisms to perfection.

So much is packed into this small gem of a novella, it’s a real skill to be able to write more within less, to make every word count and evoke feeling and communicate with such intent. Kim Kelly is one of our finest Australian writers and it gives me so much joy to recommend this winning novella to all.

Ravenous Girls

Summertime in the city, specifically, Brisbane in the mid-1980s. The aching loneliness of being a teenager, ill at ease in your own body, sad without understanding why. Ravenous Girls is a quiet study of sisterhood, the imbalance within the relationship of one being unwell and consequently taking up all the space within the family, leaving no room for the other to be anything but well and self-sufficient.

As Frankie seeks understanding of her sister’s battle with anorexia, her own struggles become lost and overlooked. Loss of her sister, loss of a normal household, loss of her best friend – all of this blends into a miasma of loss that Frankie struggles to navigate. The turmoil of being a teenager is captured with precision.

This novella leaves the reader with much to reflect on. It is so atmospheric, from the radio programs and television advertisements to the Premier of the day and Brisbane having trams still. Reading this was like stepping back through time, those of us who lived in the 1980s, and in Queensland, inhaling the nostalgia. Gentle and reflective, yet powerful in its intent, highly recommended reading.