Banish in Aussie Readers

Jun 13, 2013 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-author, provided-by-publisher, netgalley-reviews, arc-are

Australian author Nicola Marsh is a bestselling romance author but this novel is her first foray into young adult fiction. Banish introduces seventeen year old Alyssa Wood who, after the deterioration of her home life and then the suicide of her ex boyfriend,Noah, has moved to New York to live with her aunt. Just as things seem to be coming together for Alyssa, with improved grades and a fledgling relationship with the gorgeous Ronan, her life begins to fall apart. It starts when she sees the bo
Australian author Nicola Marsh is a bestselling romance author but this novel is her first foray into young adult fiction. Banish introduces seventeen year old Alyssa Wood who, after the deterioration of her home life and then the suicide of her ex boyfriend,Noah, has moved to New York to live with her aunt. Just as things seem to be coming together for Alyssa, with improved grades and a fledgling relationship with the gorgeous Ronan, her life begins to fall apart. It starts when she sees the body of a murdered girl trailing a music clip, and it soon becomes obvious Alyssa is being targeted by evil, but is it Noah's ghost seeking retribution or is it someone seeking revenge?

I really wanted to love Banish and the synopsis seemed promising, unfortunately I was disappointed with this novel for a number of reasons.
Firstly I was hoping Marsh, as an Australian author, would set the book in Australia, and I think it is a missed opportunity that it, live almost every other paranormal YA novel, is set in the US.
Secondly I found I didn't much like the protagonist, Alyssa, whose tantrums seemed more suited to a seven year old rather than a seventeen year old and whose constant anger, and peevish denial of the supernatural, though in part legitimate, is wearing.
Thirdly, I was annoyed by elements of repetition in the text, most noticeably that each time Alyssa thought about a character, the author seemed to feel it necessary to remind us of the same detail about them, for example 'my aunt who pushed Wicca on me', or 'my mum who started drinking when I was twelve and started hearing voices'. This contributes to the slow start of the story which doesn't really gain any momentum until three quarters of the way through.
Lastly, the identity of the 'villain' is blindingly obvious, though to be fair his motivation comes with a surprising back story.

On the positive side, the general plot of Banish is unusual and was grittier than I was expecting. I am in two minds though as to the combination of Wicca and Alyssa and her mothers talents. Though it offers interesting possibilities going forward, I'm not sure how they relate to one another.

Banish is clearly the first in a planned series of indeterminate length which will feature Alyssa. Unfortunately I don't think I am interested in continuing with the series but don't let that discourage you from giving it a try.
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Jul 24, 2013 Soph - Lock&Key rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: predictable-reads, read-in-2013, love-the-cover, wish-i-loved-it

2.5 stars.

It was lighthearted and fast paced. That's not always a bad thing, however because of the constant flicker of new events and pages of information loaded in one big chunk at a time, I found myself very distanced from this book. The characters lacked depth because everything was rushed. The mystery did have clues, but again the author didn't take their time and build suspense, instead everything kind of just overloaded when the book was finishing and then just abruptly ended.

Now enough ...more

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May 23, 2015 Paperback Princess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tour, arc, for-review

Banish by Nicola Marsh is a very refreshing read within the YA Paranormal genre. I personally felt that Banish is more a mystery, psychological thriller with a slight paranormal twist. Nicola wrote Banish very well, in that I didn't guess who the culprit was. The slow manifestation of clues was well timed, and the conclusion was definitely one of the story's strong points. Banish is a nail biting, page-turning experience and it's definitely a fantastic start to a much anticipated series. I'm so ...more

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Aug 06, 2013 Bree T rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, supernatural, arc

Alyssa Wood has fled her home and her mother to live with her aunt in bustling New York city. Five years ago after Alyssa turned 12, her mother turned to alcohol, spiraling downward, talking to voices and generally reversing their roles so that Alyssa felt like the parent, always constantly taking care of her mother. After her boyfriend Noah committed suicide the day after Alyssa broke up with him, she couldn’t take it anymore. The small town turned on her, people blamed her. She couldn’t go to Alyssa Wood has fled her home and her mother to live with her aunt in bustling New York city. Five years ago after Alyssa turned 12, her mother turned to alcohol, spiraling downward, talking to voices and generally reversing their roles so that Alyssa felt like the parent, always constantly taking care of her mother. After her boyfriend Noah committed suicide the day after Alyssa broke up with him, she couldn’t take it anymore. The small town turned on her, people blamed her. She couldn’t go to school, she couldn’t go to the shops. After two months, she left for New York, unable to take like the way it was there anymore.

Six months later, Alyssa is beginning to put her life back together. Her aunt has welcomed her and although she’s once tried to convert Alyssa to her Wiccan ways before, when Alyssa was younger, she seems to have backed off that for now. Which is good, because Alyssa is a definite non-believer. And she has a budding potential romance with tutor Ronan, who plays the saxophone and writes her songs.

The new life she is slowly putting together for herself is disrupted when Ronan sends her a music clip and at the end of it, Alyssa sees a dead body, murdered. No one else can see it and Alyssa realises that the date on the wall in the room where the dead body is is showing a week from today. She has one week to wrap her head around the fact that she’s seen something she doesn’t believe in, find out who the victim is and try and stop it. She’s never believed in this stuff, she’s lived for the past five years with a mother who talked only to her voices and drank herself into a stupor most nights.

Alyssa is forced into a situation where she feels that she can trust no one. Whoever is doing this to her knows about her, knows about things that she hasn’t told people. Everywhere she turns, there’s suspicion and time is running out. Someone wants her dead and Alyssa is going to have to open her mind to up to believing if she wants to live.

Banish is a young adult paranormal fantasy novel by acclaimed romance author Nicola Marsh that explores Wicca and magic through the eyes of a skeptic trapped in a Wiccan family. Alyssa is a non-believer, thanks to her mother. When she was younger she thought the small rituals were fun but when her mother started talking to spirits or drinking because of them, it suddenly became anything but fun. Alyssa’s aunt is also a powerful Wiccan who used to attempt to bring Alyssa into the fold, something Alyssa’s mother always resisted.

I’m a skeptic about most things including religion and the paranormal so I fully understand Alyssa’s stance. If I had grown up in a particularly religious household (no one in my family is a practicing anything but my in-laws are rather devout Catholics) I’d have probably been even more of a non-believer. I tend to believe in what I can see and that’s also where Alyssa begins to have problems, because she cannot deny what she is suddenly able to see. No one else can see it, just her and her search for a plausible explanation allows her to believe that possibly someone that’s near and dear to her, is involved. She desperately wants to find a rational explanation for what is happening to her.

I liked Alyssa even though she probably did maintain her “there is nothing odd happening here” attitude a little longer than she should have. When you’re faced with what she was facing, I’d be trying to gather as much information as possible so I couldn’t see why she kept running away from people or refusing to tell others. She had someone that she could’ve chosen who would’ve helped her a lot but instead she kept things to herself. I think she’d had an awful lot of deal with in her life and this was mostly down to other’s keeping things from her. At 12 she basically had to grow up and become the adult, taking care of her mother and the home because her mother was too drunk or too busy talking to the spirits. Her boyfriend became withdrawn from her and committed suicide the day after she broke up with him – she was 16 and he was 22, which is a rather large gap at that age. You’re talking about two people who are really in different places in their lives and probably want different things. She also faced blame from the town which was very difficult for her. It’s hard to really place the blame for someone’s suicide upon another person like that, it’s incredibly unfair. She’d managed to move on, to begin a tentative romance with Ronan (also older, at 21) and she has to learn to trust him after the horrific video, to be absolutely sure that he’s not involved. I really liked Ronan – he was down to earth and nice, he didn’t really play games and he was pretty supportive considering Alyssa basically went off the rails a bit the second they started dating. He didn’t dismiss any of her concerns and listened to her and believed her and managed to forgive her even after he found out that she had a fleeting suspicion he might’ve been involved, but not without at least making her apologise properly and justify why she’d thought that way.

Banish was an entertaining story that kept me turning the pages. I expected to probably find it hard to get into given my own position on the subject but it was surprisingly readable, even for a skeptic like me! ...more

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Jul 05, 2013 Sheree rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews, young-adult, aussie-author, read-in-2013

Magick, wicca, spells and witches with suspense, mystery, angst and a splash of romance ... if that gets your toes tingling then I think you'll enjoy Banish.

17 year old Alyssa wasn't easy to like, well not for me anyway. Her attitude towards her mother and Aunt bugged me but I'm trying to give her a break ... knowing the mystery shrouding her family and the trauma in her life, her snakiness was understandable, but then again she's not a stranger to drama or unaware of her family's Wiccan belief ...more

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Nov 02, 2013 Rachel (The Rest Is Still Unwritten) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: for-review, publisher-sent, i-own, harlequin-sent

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Thank you to HarlequinTEEN Australia for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!

Find my complete review on my blog here:/u> http://rachybee-the-rest-is-still-unw...

Banish by Aussie author Nicola Marsh is a mysterious thriller with just a hint of the supernatural that will have you guessing who's behind the strange goings on in our heroine Alyssa's life until the very end!

Heading into Banish, I must be honest....I had high expectations. The cover was stunning and the p Thank you to HarlequinTEEN Australia for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for an honest review!

Find my complete review on my blog here:/u> http://rachybee-the-rest-is-still-unw...

Banish by Aussie author Nicola Marsh is a mysterious thriller with just a hint of the supernatural that will have you guessing who's behind the strange goings on in our heroine Alyssa's life until the very end!

Heading into Banish, I must be honest....I had high expectations. The cover was stunning and the premise looked promising, so I was anticipating a thrilling read, but unfortunately this book was a bit of a mixed basket for me. In Banish, Nicola Marsh introduces us to Alyssa Wood, a teenager who has moved to New York to live with her Wiccan aunt after losing her boyfriend and on the back of her mothers mental deterioration but who ultimately finds the past won't the past.

I really wanted to like Banish, I did. However, I struggled from the very beginning to get into this story. Banish's storyline had real possibility, especially when coupled with a witchy element woven into it, but while Banish did ultimately pick up just after halfway I still felt it fell flat.

For the most part, I didn't feel one way or another over our main character and protagonist, Alyssa. I neither loved her nor did I outright her but I did have my problems with her. Considering she grew up in a household where Wicca was such a fixture and magic played such a big role in her mothers, and aunts life, I felt author Nicola Marsh made too big a deal over Alyssa's inability to believe. Don't get me wrong--I understood the purpose of knowing Alyssa was a non-believer to the storyline, but after the first half of the story, I felt as though this fact was really being shoved down my throat. And I came to resent this.

Nicola Marsh's inclusion of Roman in the form of Alyssa's love interest really confounded me. Taking into consideration that these two already know each other when Banish opens up, their relationship came across as lacking and inconsequential. I almost felt Marsh added it in simply to have a relationship in the story. Don't get me wrong, I loved Roman. He was likable and quite sexy in his geeky, suave way and a delightful enigma in the story with his different musical inclinations. In fact, I would have liked to have seen more of him, but from what I saw he and Alyssa's chemistry was a fine simmer--it didn't really go anywhere and to me seemed unnecessary.

The mystery of this novel I did like and the way everything made sense in the end when the mystery surrounding the strange occurrences in Alyssa's life is revealed. Everything tied in well and even I was questioning who and/or what could be behind it all.

Overall, Banish wasn't a bad read, it just wasn't necessarily for me. However, if you're a fan of mystery and thrillers with just the perfect splash of magic and supernatural thrown in then Banish may just be for you. ...more

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Jul 04, 2013 Tien rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, mystery, thriller, paranormal, moving-mountains

Just look at that cover – extremely eye-catching pink (have you seen my nails today?) with close-up of a gorgeous blond-blue-eyed chick. Yea, I am totally a sucker for pretty covers. I’ve not read any other of Nicola Marsh’s works though she seemed to be a prolific author; mostly adult romance novels which I rarely touch. This particular work in the YA / thriller / paranormal fits right within my comfort zone though so it was a snap decision to pick this up.

Alyssa came to New York to live with h Just look at that cover – extremely eye-catching pink (have you seen my nails today?) with close-up of a gorgeous blond-blue-eyed chick. Yea, I am totally a sucker for pretty covers. I’ve not read any other of Nicola Marsh’s works though she seemed to be a prolific author; mostly adult romance novels which I rarely touch. This particular work in the YA / thriller / paranormal fits right within my comfort zone though so it was a snap decision to pick this up.

Alyssa came to New York to live with her aunt in order to escape from a painful past. However, just as she thinks that things are settling down, she’s moving on and is starting to dare to grasp happiness once again, the past came back to haunt her. It’s driving her crazy because she refused to believe in the supernatural… She believes someone’s got it bad for her and her logical head is pushing for a realistic answer. Is she going to get the result she wanted and will it be free of the supernatural?

[Alyssa describing herself] …beanpole strawberry blonde with blah-blue eyes, no curves and a nasty habit of picking at her cuticles

Alyssa was an easily likeable character though I really get the feeling that all her refusal to believe in the supernatural was a little too forced. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. However, she really is a mature character as is evident by her dating older guys. And Ronan! Well, I’ve to say that not only is he HOT, he sounds to be really mature for a 21 year old musician! It was lovely to read a relationship where both sides knew the need to communicate and tried hard at it – a refreshing change in a romance! And let’s not forget the sizzles!

His knuckles grazed my cheek in a strangely intimate gesture that had me wanting to leap into his arms and wrap my legs around him, like some corny scene out of a romantic movie…. He stared at my mouth for another few seconds before he shook his head slightly, as if trying to clear the fog. I know the feeling. Confused, befuddled and totally in lust.

The book opens with a Prologue that was quite thrilling then the book started the week previous to explore events leading up to the prologue. I don’t usually find this type of start annoying but this particular one, I actually did. The start was pretty explosive that I found it hard to settle to read the book. I kept getting distracted and was really impatient to get to that part so I can move onto the next exciting bit but it turns out to be the ending of the book and it was repeated word for word which was somewhat disappointing. I skimmed that couple of pages to read the closing of the book.

Despite the above slight disappointment and the predictability of the mystery (I figured it out midway), I still quite enjoyed the book. Primarily due to the turn of language and the suspense was still there though hubz dared to show up (to pick me up from the station) when I was 5 pages from the end! Arrgh! Banish is a good-easy-read with enough sweetness and suspense to spice it up. I’d recommend it if you’re after some sweet brain-fluff to while away a summer’s day. This is the perfect book to read out in the sunshine.

Thank you, HarlequinTeen Australia, for providing copy of book in exchange of honest review
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