Category Archives: Fiction

Review: Robyn Mundy – Wildlight

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Wildlight
Robyn Mundy

Stephanie has been exiled to an Island for the final year of her high school in her parents’ quest to recapture peace. Her time is split between her school work, her art and taking weather readings of the lighthouse. When Tom shows up, Stephanie’s days take an interesting turn and it seems like she’s found her first love.

27993790I always wanted more. It wasn’t enough for me that Stephanie’s brother was dead. I wanted the gruesome details. And it wasn’t enough that her mother wept, or that there was something interesting going on in the deal with her grandparents, that we never found out about.

The time period passed rapidly. Too rapidly. I didn’t get any sense of the days dragging on for Steph at all. It felt like I only really heard about her at the interesting points, so what she views as an exile from the mainland is just a really short period for us readers.

Frank is scary, I’ll grant you that. But Tom is really just a wuss. Sorry Tom. But why can’t you stand up for yourself? Really? It’s too hard? And when you decide, it’s like you can’t make sense of it and you want to wander off. That’s about as spoiler-free as I can be.

How did I really feel about the ending? Satisfied? Actually no, but I was ok with that. I think. I don’t know! Tom’s struggle seems real, while Stephanie hardly seems to have changed. It was nice seeing the future, but it was left so open-ended.

It wasn’t the fast-paced novel I thought it would be. 3 stars.

3star

Review: Sharon Guskin – The Forgetting Time

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The Forgetting Time
Sharon Guskin

Noah spends his nights in nightmares and his days fearing water. His mother is at the end of her patience – job running down, daycare refusing her son, and the situation getting worse all the time. When psychiatrists can’t help her, she turns to a man losing language to see if he can get her inside Noah’s mind.

9781509806805The back of the novel simply didn’t pull me in, but I took it with me somewhere and I couldn’t sleep, so of course this got read! It should have said something more about past lives, and then it would have gotten me straight away.

Ooooh, the premise of this book is a tricky one. Chasing past lives is interesting enough, and then there is someone trying to do science on it. I would have enjoyed more stories, but overall it was fascinating enough. The trials and tribulations of both of the adults felt real and relatable.

In the swaps between perspectives I could definitely tell the differences in the mental voices. That brought alive for me the other parts of the story (such as the teenager). It highlighted to me again though that the law system can be so very wrong, even if murder is an accident.

I’m not sure what else to say about this one. Worth a read. It sent me away questioning all kinds of things, and wanting to read some of the reference materials that the author presented in the acknowledgements. I’m a scientist for goodness sakes! I guess that’s what appealed to me about it.

3star

Review: Meg Caddy – Waer

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Waer
Meg Caddy

While on a training trip with his little brother, Lowell finds a waer washed up on a riverbank, mostly dead, mostly mute. As Lowell tries to nurse her back to health, other forces are moving that she knows about, but Lowell’s little town doesn’t. Little do they know that there will be even bigger things at stake.

27803778I didn’t feel a distinction between the perspectives of Lowell and Lycaea. This is a common complaint of mine. Also, for a couple of chapters I didn’t realise that Lowell was a boy. Honestly, I thought it could have gone either way. Lowell isn’t depicted as a fighter, and Lycaea certainly breaks any stereotypes of a passive woman. Kick-ass!

Mm, don’t mind if there is a plot twist. Or two. Or just any plot twist that Caddy wants to throw at me. She gave me enough clues, but I was too entranced by the storytelling to really get a handle on what could be happening. Lowell was more switched on than I was, and I’m supposed to be the all-seeing reader!

What I enjoyed was that being a Waer (a human able to change into a wolf) was really a minor plot point. The characters themselves provided the momentum and the motivation to keep reading the novel, no relying on tropes. Apart from a spirit-bond, which happens in other races, they just have that extra little bit of awesome.

The ending felt a little rushed, but what made me happy was that it was a complete ending. So note to everyone – this is a stand alone, and it’s brilliant as one. Don’t expect a series. But at the same time, I can totally see a series happening from this, and I wouldn’t be objecting so long as that each novel is a true stand alone. I can see a distant novel either in the past, or the future.

I had my eyes on this novel ever since I saw it at a publisher event last year. I tweeted like mad and put my name in for it as soon as possible. I think maybe that built it up in my mind as a phantom of ‘amazing’, and then when I read it I felt like it wasn’t worth 5 stars, and that made me sad. It’s really hard to get 5 stars from me anyway. A well-deserved 4 stars, and I’ll be keeping my eye out for more novels by Caddy.

4star

 

Review: Dan Ford – The Evolution of Adam

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The Evolution of Adam
Dan Ford

Highly evolved spiritual entities make simple animals into humans with sentience and free-will. What follows in recent times is their journey towards enlightenment and the quest for ‘God’.

22849011I put off reading this novel because it sounded like yet another ‘Spiritual Quest’ novel that wanted to tell me how to live my life. Instead I found a fiction that was just how the blurb announced it. The only problem was that the blurb read more as an advertising brief than a quick summary of the text.

The characters had very nice variety in them. Although I felt like Adam was the main character (of course, since the book is sort of named after him after all!), the other characters got airtime and some development. I didn’t feel like I needed to prefer one over the other, and I think the majority of people could find someone that they related to.

Oh dear. This novel was a bit of a tome, since despite having large text it came in at 500 pages. My feeling was that for every three sentences, it could be replaced with one sentence to give a more pithy and powerful novel. I got caught down in the colour of clothing and the insecurities of the characters when I should have been entranced by the story.

I confess that I didn’t finish this novel (I read up to chapter 4), which would usually be an automatic 1 star from me. But I’m giving this novel 2 stars. The storyline would have been fine, but the wording was just too much for me. I can see the potential there, I’d be willing to try reading it again if some serious editing took place.

2star

Review: Kathleen Duhamel – Deep Blue

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Deep Blue
Kathleen Duhamel

Claire is a struggling artist haunted by her ex-husband’s pleas for return and threats of money. A chance encounter with an ageing rock-star opens her heart to love again – but also opens other areas of her life to danger. Denise, her BBF, has other things going on in her life, besides being Claire’s buddy.

26192938 (1)Oh man, oh man. Where do I get started with this? The jazz and soul music promised to me by the author, or the attractive cover? Or both? I found myself hooked in, with the music and lyrics speaking to me and tying in nicely with the delicious cover. I didn’t feel ashamed of taking it out in public, and in fact read it instead of doing house renovations!

The perspective between the older women changes mid-way through the novel. It took me a bit to get adjusted, and I still felt more attached to Claire. However it didn’t then continue swapping back and forth, so I wasn’t disturbed.

I think a lot is made of the addiction problems in the blurb, which is unrepresentative of the actual contents of the novel. We do see some struggle going on, and it fleshes Rob out nicely. It does make a nice change from not having any issues, and adds some interest. It’s not just the ‘love story’, it’s also real people problems.

Could it have kept going with no sex scenes? Yeah, I think so. But at the same time, it’s cute how they are all over each other all the time. Did I just write that? It is a romance after all.

I’m really looking forward to a sequel. I didn’t feel done with Denise. I’m going to give it 4 stars, a chick/hen-lit that gets my approval.

4star

Review: Megan Jacobson – yellow

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yellow
Megan Jacobson

Kirra has a horrible school life – tormented by the hierarchies of high school, and an even worse home life where her mother is a certified alcoholic. Not to mention a father that’s living three houses away. Kirra wants to turn her life around, and maybe a ghost in a broken phone booth can give her the way to do that.

25698127I’m pretty sure rescuing her mother from alcoholism in this method would be illegal… And I’m not sure how it would work. But in the context of the novel? Hell yeah! Bossing! Good work Kirra. For a stressed and ‘weak’ person such as Kirra, she has a real spine when she needs to. She just needs to be reminded that if you’re at the bottom, the only way is up.

The ghost in the phone box is a great way of creating a twist in a teenage novel that could have otherwise been a bit of the usual redemptive boring nonsense. You know, sometimes I felt like Kirra could have done a better job of standing up for herself, and then I realise that her character evolution through the novel is what made me think that. Something that would make me star-down another novel worked for me in this one the more I thought about it.

This is a brilliant novel, and I look forward to reading more by Jacobson. She gets into the hearts and minds of teenagers, and depicts small-town life in Australia in a way that emphasises the uniqueness of the situation. I’m giving it an easy 4 stars.

Looking for other novels like this one to read as a teenager and raise your spirits? Or something that would be amazing to have in a school library? Try ‘Beautiful Broken Things‘ and ‘A Series of Small Manoeuvres‘.

4star

Review: Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Roald Dahl

Charlie is a little boy starving to death, with delicious chocolate smells assaulting him every time he walks to school. With four grandparents to support, and only one toothpaste-lid-tube-tightening father, it seems like things will never look up. But as we all know, Charlie is going to have the experience of his life inside Mr Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

109089So you’ve seen the movie six dozen times (or maybe seven dozen, if you’re my age and it played on the weekend TV every week). But the book is the best, and the two movies don’t do justice to Roald Dahl’s world. Something that this novel has over the films is that you get to see illustrations of the four other children after they have been returned to their approximate original selves.

I own this in both a larger, modern size (pictured) with illustration, and an older, dirty copy. The older dirty copy is the one I read as a child, and it shows it. After finishing this novel I was told by my listeners that they needed to hear the second book immediately. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a copy of it Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. From what I remember, it’s a bit of an odd book, so I don’t expect them to love it as much as the first.

How could this not be 5 stars? It’s a classic, and a proper should-be-loved-by-all-people-classic at that. None of that Jane Austin business, Roald Dahl is where it is at.

5star

Review: Maggie Stiefvater – The Dream Thieves

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The Dream Thieves
Maggie Stiefvater

Ronan Lynch is the typical bad boy who doesn’t get along with anyone. His friends barely manage to keep him in check, and he spends more time arguing with Gansey than making a difference to the adventures of his buddies. That all changes in this novel… It’s Ronan calling the shots, and taking the shots, and being shot at.

17347389At the end of the first novel, there is a hint about what will happen in this one. I didn’t get the hint, even with this novel sitting on my shelf. This time we see the evolution of the Raven Boys into young men who are slightly more decent people. It helps that the perspectives are now changing between them and Blue, as her views are coloured by her family.

It seems like my review is filled with things comparing it to the other novels in the series, but I can’t help it! It’s so easy to spoiler this novel. World building? Check. Engaging storyline? Check. Evolving characters? Check. I think you’ll enjoy this one, but don’t expect anything too spectacular.

Years ago I received this novel for review, but didn’t own the first one to get started on the series. After the third novel (Blue Lily, Lily Blue) came into my mailbox I thought I should really get a start on reading them… But it wasn’t until Christmas last year that I received the novel (hardbacks are expensive!).

I just can’t think straight about these novels. I put them down and almost immediately forget what the story was about and whether I enjoyed it. Is it that the story wasn’t that engaging or that each ending feels satisfying or maybe even that my concentration is shot?

4star

 

Review: Sara Barnard – Beautiful Broken Things

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Beautiful Broken Things
Sara Barnard

Caddie has never had any significant life events. No boyfriends, no sex, and nothing exciting. When the broken Suzanne comes into her life, her friendships and experiences are going to change. Her best friend Rosie is going to be pushed out of the way by a girl who seems larger than life.

25437747I’m going to be honest here, the first couple of chapters were so slow that I considered putting it back on the shelf for another time. But I kept persevering, and I was rewarded with emotional torrents that could pluck heartstrings while also giving a harsh relativity to the main characters.

Caddie is a selfish teenager sometimes. She wonders to herself, if I do this thing… oh wait, she didn’t actually think about it at all, she just did it. And now people are annoyed at her. She makes plenty of bad choices, and doesn’t seem to know how to stand up to people. Sometimes she was so dumb I wanted to slap her.

I’m not sure anyone was taking Suzanne seriously enough. She writes things off as jokes, make fun of her own mortality, but underneath she does need help. Caddie tries to provide that, once she knows what is going on, but Suzanne doesn’t want to accept help. Considering that Caddie’s parents have had to deal with Tarin being bipolar (which is presented in an entirely blaze way), they don’t seem to get depression when they see it.

For all the worry about where Suzanne is, adults are hopeless and the final chapters of the book are heartrending. What is wrong with you people? Why can you not see these things? Isn’t it obvious that something major is wrong?

There was a lot of underage drinking going on in this novel, plus some weed. I don’t have a problem with that at all though, it certainly fit with what I know about teenage girls. As old as Caddie’s parents are, you would sure hope they might have learnt something about parenting. The chip on Caddie’s shoulder about going to a private school has to stem from them, and I can understand where she is coming from.

This is on par with Cam Girl for me. One depicts codependency as horrible, the other as something that can be respected. Two novels about how friendships can break apart and be put back together, but one as a teenage fiction and the other as brilliant, accessible teenage fiction.

4 stars from me.

4star

Review: Will McIntosh – Burning Midnight

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Burning Midnight
Will McIntosh

David Sully is a usual teenage boy. In his modern world, the economy rides on spheres. Spheres can make you smarter, or taller, or have nice teeth, or give you supersonic hearing. He’s been successful before, but having been burnt once by the resident sphere millionaire buyer, he’s reluctant to trust anyone. When Hunter comes along, the whole spectrum of spheres is going to shift…

25489041This innovative magic system – I could have had more! The basis was spheres – burn a Ruby Red one, have straight teeth, or Aqua ones so that you can sleep whenever you need. The price point is all you need to worry about to do. In the manner of Brandon Sanderson, I wished there had been an index at the end of the novel to remind me what each of the spheres burned did to each person. Then I could have flipped back and forth as I wanted.

They have to be super sneaky and smart to survive, but sometimes they are just plain stupid! Hunter was the highlight for me, because she was so pigheaded all the time, and seems to still get there in the end. Unlike Sully, who once burnt, becomes a suspicious bastard. The Spheres had been around for around 5 years, and hunting them is what makes a living for Sully and Hunter. Sully has created a second wave, and the new ones are something special again. And that makes the whole premise of this novel.

Yes, yes, there’s romance in this novel. It was inevitable. You can’t have teenage fiction without it it seems. Hunter did the usual ‘I’m not girlfriend material speech’, and Sully did his ‘I don’t care, you’re so hot, mighty sphere hunter’. And didn’t everything work out very interestingly, and not so straight forward and good? Yes, yes it did.

Burning midnight drove me absolutely up the wall with really wanting to read it. Worst of all, I had to stop about 10 pages from the end and do some other things in the mean time, and that was just cruel! I’d recommend this novel without reservation to any teenager who enjoys an action packed time.

The ending could have frustrated me, but actually I thought it left me feeling quite satisfied, despite it ending a little abruptly. Some other reviews I have read suggest it needs a sequel, but it’s not at all clear where that would go. For me, it was very satisfying and I think it’s going to give you a couple of really good hours of reading. 

4star