Author Archives: Rose Herbert

Review: AF Steadman – Skandar and the Unicorn Thief

Posted on by
Reply

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief
AF Steadman

So it turns out that unicorns are real! And, they’re limited to just a single island, everyone wants one, and they eat meat and small fluffy animals. Oh yes, and spirit unicorns are deadly unicorns that mean that if you are meant to be a spirit rider, you will fail your entrance exam to unicorn school no matter how hard you study. Skandar’s sister didn’t get a unicorn and it almost broke her – it’s up to Skandar to carry on their father’s unicorn wishes.

Seriously, if the whole island is covered with wild unicorns, how can there be any furry creatures left? There are so many plot holes. So many. Oh look, a book that will teach you everything! Oops, lost it. Wooh, got past one enemy and now assume that I’m invincible! I was very disappointed in the end of both books, particularly the second one. Has Skandar just conveniently forgotten about the other unicorn that he keeps running into?

Other reviewers have commented that it’s so unlikely that the whole world would want to believe in unicorns and watch a race once a year that determines the ruler of the magical island. I’m telling you, those people can’t be Australians! In Victoria, Australia we have The Melbourne Cup, which is horses racing around a track – ‘the race that stops the Nation’. We even get a public holiday to celebrate it! So to me, the notion that a race stopped everyone from doing anything was pretty straightforward.

I was given the first book for review, and bought the second book as a 14th birthday gift. The teenager hasn’t been raised on a diet of Harry Potter (thank goodness), she prefers Tamora Pierce, Garth Nix and other EXCELLENT books. She said that Skandar was better than Percy Jackson, the books looked attractive and there was a gift solved (the age-old gifting problem). If you grew up with Harry Potter or Percy Jackson as a child then Skandar is a weak shadow and not worth it if you are now an adult reader. It’s fine for middle-grade and teens, but I wouldn’t rate it that highly. 3-stars from me, for the right audience.

Simon & Schuster | 28 April 2022 | AU$19.99 | paperback

Quick Reviews of Fiction eBooks #1

Posted on by
Reply

Big Boned
Jo Watson

Lori has been the fat girl, with an odd brother, for a long while. But she used to fit in with her artistic talents – then her mom went and uprooted their lives to find the best place for her brother. Can Lori swim? I liked this novel. Go fat girls who end up being ok with being fat. The evolution from fat girl to fat girl with a better attitude towards herself was nice! I love the claimback by Lori of being fat and being healthy not being mutually exclusive. The novel reminded me to some extent of The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridge. The ending was pretty much as I expected but it was cute anyway.

Please Don’t Hug Me
Kay Kerr

I received this as an ARC eBook copy a long time ago but never got into it. I read the first chaper or so, and then got distracted by other physical books. In transperancy though, I did finally read it as an ebook from my local library! I didn’t find it particularly riviting again the second time either. I struggled with Erin just having a single goal of Schoolies and her writing letters to her brother who could be in jail? We don’t even know? Until we do know, and then, oh, I hate Erin’s psychologist. I much preferred Social Queue and the non-fiction Love and Autism (I read them in very quick succession).

Social Queue
Kay Kerr

Zoe’s made it out of highschool with only a few quirks in behaviour that are the direct result of bullying – most is ‘just’ her autism. Or actually, she’s still trying to get used to being a teenager with autism, but she knows that she wants to be a writer. I enjoyed this novel much more than Please Don’t Hug Me because autism is less of a disability and more of a character trait that makes Zoe really good at some things, and not others (just like non-disabled people). Zoe reasonated with me as a character who wasn’t sure of her attraction to other people, but was willing to try going on five new dates! Even if the results weren’t what we/she expected. I think this is a great novel to add to any teenager’s shelf who struggles with being their authentic self, and learning how to love as a neurodivergent human.

Quick Reviews of Fiction eBooks #2

Posted on by
Reply

The In Between
Marc Klein

Tessa’s grown up in foster homes and knows to trust no one. But then Skylar enters her life, and Tessa sees some hope for the future. But what if there’s no future for them together? I’ve started sorting through teenage fiction that includes foster children in the hopes that I’ll identify some good ones worth buying and keeping for the foster teenagers that we have in our home. This one though is not it. I’m pretty sick of the foster-teen-finds surprising-love while also being-a-photographer with weird afterlife vibes. I’ve seen this same thing done slightly differently in Watch Over Me with slightly more sinister tones, and a younger version in Everything We Keep.

That Bonesetter Woman
Frances Quinn

Bonesetting was a craft before doctors became actually able to cure people! Durie has only ever wanted to be a bonesetter like her father – putting dislocated joints back into place and easing people’s strains (really, a cross between a physiotherapist and a chiropractor). Being unattractive is so hard, particularly back in the day when women were just commodities to be sold to the highest-husband bidder. I have to say though that sometimes Durie was a bit dumb, despite being smart enough to remember things! Like really? What? But I hung on and got the ending that I wanted, even if it wasn’t quite the one I needed. I’d highly recommend reading this one if you like your historical fiction with a decent working-class protagonist who isn’t beautiful.

The Passing Playbook
Isaac Fitzsimons

Hehe, the title is sort of a pun! Spencer is both trans and passing, and a soccer player and passing! Anyway, this book gave off vibes of Felix Ever After but was more solid and enjoyable to me. I appreciated the nuances the author had to deal with when creating Spencer, and I think despite part of the local problems of Spencer being marked as F on his birth certificate, this book will continue to remain relevant. This book made me think of a Queer event that I went to and someone trans asked when they could stop representing all other trans people. That’s the question, isn’t it? When will being trans not make someone a different ‘category’ of human? I don’t have the answer, and neither does this novel, but it’s a good one to add to your Queer bookshelf anyway.

Review: Alexandra Rowland – A Taste of Gold and Iron

Posted on by
Reply

A Taste of Gold and Iron
Alexandra Rowland

Arasht is known for its pure currency that is determined by touchtasters. A plot with counterfeit coins could threaten the whole realm, and Kadou needs to solve it. Kadou is a bit of a mess, so it’s a good thing that he has a beefy bodyguard to keep him out of trouble. Will there ever be something more between them?

It took me ages to read this novel because 1) I thought it was the first in a series and I didn’t want to commit and 2) I didn’t notice that it had gay protagonists. Unfortunately the plot was lacking. I’m not sure why I kept reading it – maybe I got too attached to poor Kadou and his panic attacks? Then again, I hated Kadou’s ex- who was just a comical steriotype of a gay man calling everyone ‘darling’ and ‘sweetheart’. Evemer tries to be the hard counterpoint to the ex- but never really becomes a 3D character.

The plot of this novel was quite weak, and it was very easy to see where the book would end up. It was obvious who the villians were from the start, and it was clear that it didn’t actually matter if they were caught! I mean, there was a moment where they couldn’t trust anyone, but it was all good! They just pulled in a truth-seeker.

What I loved most was the use of another non-binary gender in a way that the author just created a new term. The author just rolled with it and didn’t give the reader a chance to be transphobic. The role of male partners was also curtailed by body-father (basically sperm donor) and women only giving another person law/love control over the offspring if they wanted to. Seliha is a bit dopey, but gets there in the end I guess.

This reminded me a bit of Ash Princess in the way that it had a (to me) traditional feel of bodyguard falling for a princess/prince/whoever. It was inevitable that they would fall in love, because why else would the book exist? I’m giving this a generous 4 stars since I did keep reading it, but the plot was just pathetic.

Pan Macmillan | 30 August 2022 | AU$34.99 | paperback

Review: Amanda Woody – They Hate Each Other

Posted on by
Reply

They Hate Each Other
Amanda Woody

Jonah and Dylan have nothing in common. Nothing. Never. It’s why their friends are so determined that they will end up together – enemies to lovers. When they end up accidentally sleeping in the same bed, they decide to fake it until their friends get over it. But will Jonah and Dylan discover that they have more in common than they thought?

Is this too neat? I mean, it’s gonna be a teenage romance, so OF COURSE they will end up together. The author digs a little more deeply though into each of the boy’s home lives, and deals with some difficult topics including sexual harrassment, abuse, trauma and body image. It could be triggering for some people – don’t believe what TikTok tells you about the book, go and actually read the publisher’s website to be sure that it’s a book for you.

Reminicent of Lose You to Find Me, this book is a worthy additional to #ownvoices Queer novels. I’d put this near the top of my recommendation pile for someone with a young gay in their lives. It’s not always a comforting or comfortable read, but it is pretty good fun in parts. I couldn’t decide if I was on Team Dylan or Team Jonah – I love a great baked good, so I guess Dylan wins. Both are well-rounded characters that have been given unique quirks and flaws rather than being one-dimensional standins for “best practice gay boys”.

I ate this book up in a single afternoon, so it must have been good! On a couple of occasions I almost found myself crying for the characters. 5 stars from me, with a thought that after the storyline fades nicely in my head, I will want to reread it. Only time will tell.

Hachette | 9 May 2023 | AU$22.99 | paperback

Review: Laura Taylor Namey – A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

Posted on by
Reply

A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow
Laura Taylor Namey

Lila had plans. Finish school, take over the bakery with her grandmother, employ her best friend to support her through college and maybe get married to the love of her life. Unfortunately she can only do one of these things for certain – suddenly the rest of her life is in upheaval and she’s shipped off to England.

I found it fascinating how much freedom Lila had! My parents would never consider sending me overseas like that to deal with a problem (in fact, they made sure I wouldn’t be equipped to do that). I can’t really imagine managing a kitchen at 18 either, but I guess it’s what you are used to. I totally saw where this novel was going, and I was perfectly happy to go there. I wanted a soft, casual read on vacation that I could drop out of at any time.

What this book also does quite well is validate creativity in baking. Sure, Lila knows her stuff well enough to out-cook the resident baker, but she knows that she has more to learn. Trades are a legitimate job choice, and I’m happy to see it being promoted here. I’m not sure what this would look like in Australia though. The restaurant industry can be very tough, particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19.

The way that Lila literally ran to deal with her feelings was quite novel. I feel like most of the time someone takes up running to be thinner, or just because they like it. Lila does state she enjoys it, but running past the point of being sick is something else. Not to mention dragging her friends in to run with her!

I enjoyed this novel as a light 3-star-worthy read. I read it as an eBook, which doesn’t help the story to stick in my head though (several months later anyway…). Highly recommended for anyone who likes a baking vibe to their fiction (eg. Caramel Hearts).

Review: Tom Rob Smith – Cold People

Posted on by
Reply

Cold People
Tom Rob Smith

Humanity has been exiled to Antarctica by an alien race that cares nothing for humans. Given 30 days to race there by any means possible, the novel follows the unlikely love story of Liza and Atto, and their daughter Echo, from Announcement Day to the Days of the Cold People. Genetic experiments have bred new beings that thrive in the ice – but are they human? Do they care about humanity?

I wanted to like this novel, but I couldn’t. I generally hate perspectives that jump from character to character because often the change in tone isn’t noticeable enough. In this novel, it’s clear who the different people are, but I just didn’t care about any of them very much. I formed no emotional connections to the humans or the ice-adapted beings, and thus I didn’t really care one way or the other who ‘won’.

The world-building was beautiful and I could see the snow drifts of Antarctica and smelly human boats that stained the pure ice. I have no desire to go there! I would have been like Yotan’s friend’s family – holed up together until dissipating into energy particles. I still don’t know what the novel was trying to teach me though.

I received this novel as an ARC, so I felt as if I should read the whole thing before judging it. I’m not sure what exactly I was hoping to get from the ending, but I found it to be a letdown. Are we supposed to sympathise with the Cold People? Wish that humanity had treated the Earth better and that we hadn’t been so hard on the resources? I’m a geneticist “by trade” and I didn’t find it that interesting because it was clear that this wasn’t based on what we can do in genetics now. Since I finished it, 3 stars, but I guess you’d need to be really keen on Antarctica.

Simon & Schuster | 1 February 2023 | AU$32.99 | paperback

Review: NDF novels #4

Posted on by
Reply

A Life in Trauma
Memoirs of An Emergency Physician
Chris Luke

“Concern. Compassion. Doubt. Despair. Anger. Hope. Imagine juggling these feelings every day in a situation where your work could mean the difference between someone’s life or death.” I confess that I didn’t finish ‘reading’ this book (I read it as an audiobook). I found the tone to be extremely dry and everything was delivered in a flat tone of voice. The only reason that I got most of the way through it was because I had a 4 hour commute by myself, and I forgot to download a different book! That being said, I still enjoyed this book more than Undoctored.

Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas
Adam Kay

Another audiobook that I listened to. Plenty of interesting trauma stories as long as you filter out the voice of Adam Kay. What can I say? I was super bored, this was short, and I could easily tune out of it to pay attention to the rest of the conversations in the room. After awhile it became a bit more repeditive (the same stupid people still do stupid things at Christmas). Someone keen for more Adam Kay is going to love it, someone wanting to hear more about the lives of medical doctors will probably cringe and enjoy it in equal measures.

Made in China
Anna Qu

This book read like a sensationalised novel, and I’m not certain I got something particularly valuable out of it. I have read many other books about the experiences of Chinese immigrants, some that are memoirs (Mao’s Last Dancer, Shanghai Acrobat) and others that are fictional (Tiger Daughter). This is the second in a series of unremarkable memoirs I’ve read recently. I wouldn’t pay to buy this book, and I’m sad at home much time I spent reading it. I don’t think that the story within is particularly unique any more. There’s usually not much to comment on for a non-fiction novel, and this one even more so.

Review: Samer Nashef – The Naked Surgeon

Posted on by
Reply

The Naked Surgeon
The power and peril of transparency in medicine
Samer Nashef

“We are not meant to touch hearts. We all have one, but most of us will never see one. The heart surgeon now has that privilege but, for centuries, the heart was out of reach even for surgeons. So when a surgeon nowadays opens up a ribcage and mends a heart, it remains something of a miracle, even if, to some, it is merely plumbing. As with plumbers, the quality of surgeons’ work varies. As with plumbers, surgeons’ opinion of their own prowess and their own attitude to risk are not always reliable. Measurement is key. We’ve had a century of effective evidence-based medicine. We’ve had barely a decade of thorough monitoring of clinical outcomes.”

As someone who has a regrettably bad grasp on statistics, this book was fantastic! It explained some pretty complex modelling scenarios in a way that didn’t make me feel stupid and that I’m certain a non-scientist would understand. I didn’t expect to enjoy reading it, but the author does a great job delivering the material in a way that kept me preferentially keep going over other parallel reads I was doing. Also, I felt the need to share some random facts with others in my vicinity. Cool stuff!

It’s terrifying to think about the success rates of some of the earliest surgical interventions. Reading old veterinary novels (eg. James Herriot) reminds us of a time when medicine wasn’t actually all that good at fixing things! I think that’s it’s quite common that if you are facing surgery you just trust that the surgeon is going to do the right thing, and try to get a good outcome for you. This is particularly true in Australia and Britain where the public health system is free/low cost. This book is a timely reminder to check your options and seek a second opinion if you need one. Trust doctors, but also do your own research.

This book was quite British based, but still has relevance to healthcare around the globe. I found it so interesting to see that my preconception that governments see the most ‘efficient treatment’ to be the cheapest as true. Sometimes (perhaps even always?) this might lead to poorer patient outcome in terms of survival – because someone who dies on the operating table doesn’t have any expensive post-surgery rehab!

I recently lost an uncle to a mostly unexpected heart attack after he’d already had a successful intervention earlier in the year. I’m certain that his surgeon is one of the ones who obsesses over those that they lose and improves from that loss. The other heart scenario I have personally encountered is an aortic dissection – which is actually quite rare! All this sends home the message that even though heart surgery has come a long way it’s still better to keep yourself in shape to stay out of the operating theatre.

It’s a book best ‘enjoyed’ slowly, so that you can let the statistics sink in. I’d keenly read more books by this author, if he chooses to share his thoughts on other medical topical matters.

Review: NDF novels #3

Posted on by
Reply

Believe
Sam Frost

I tried so hard to like this book because I requested it for review. I was expecting it to have actionable points to improve my life. Instead, I got some serious navel-gazing by the author that didn’t encourage me to keep reading. I am a fan of ‘believing’ in yourself, but I’m also not a subscriber to the idea that if you ‘just believe’ you’ll find everything you need coming your way. Sam’s words around her anxiety and depression didn’t work for me, but might appeal to others. I’m always hesitant to recommend a book that suggests you can just think your way out of being anxious and depressed – sometimes medication is a must, and books like this one can occasionally actually make people think drugs are optional or the easy option. It wasn’t for me.

Hachette | 30 March 2022 | AU$32.99 | paperback

Mind Fuel
Bear Grylls

Who doesn’t like Bear Grylls? Known for his survival beyond the odds, Bear Grylls has plenty of tips to share of how to overcome fears and achieve feats! I’ve grouped this book with ‘Believe’ though, because once again it’s all about the power of the mind. I was hoping for a inspirational read of some of the science behind surviving crazy environments, and instead got a series of quotes from other people that Bear Grylls seems to think are important. I’m never fond of quote books at the best of times, and this one, with random quotes for a year, I just couldn’t get into. I tried reading from the beginning, reading one a day, jumping into the middle of the book – nope, no good. I’m not even really sure who to recommend this book to, because liking Bear Grylls didn’t make the book more accessible for me.

Hachette | 11 October 2022 | AU$34.99 | paperback

You Can Do It
How to find your voice and make a difference
Marcus Rashford & Carl Anka

This lime-green book is the final one in this set of three horrible self-help books that I couldn’t get into and enjoy (and thus left them sitting on my shelf for almost a year before calling it done). This book promises a nice mix of stories, hot-tips and advice to keep you on your footballing toes. For me though it ended up just being more ‘believe in yourself’ advice. I really wanted to like it! I felt sure that I’d enjoy it – I absolutely think that young people need more support to become themselves. The big print text and shoutouts didn’t work for me as I’d much prefer to read a bit more dense text. I think I’ll give it to my local teenage reader and see what she thinks of it. Ultimately though, I think it’s destined to leave my house.

Pan Macmillan | 26 July 2022 | AU$19.99 | paperback