Category Archives: Book Reviews

Review: Vanessa Len – Only a Monster

Posted on by
Reply

Only a Monster
Vanessa Len

Joan loves summers with her Gran and mom’s family, and this year she has a great job too – working in a tourist attraction with the attractive Nick. When Joan loses part of a day, she becomes aware of the family secret – she’s a time-traveler and monster to boot. But are monsters the bad guys in this story? Joan is going to have to work out what she wants most in the world.

Part of the struggle in this novel is that I wasn’t sure whose side I was on. Ok, it’s terrible that humans are losing part of their lives to monsters when they time travel. But also, how cool is that?? It could only be more awesome if they could take a regular human with them.

I like the way that the author addresses the paradoxes of time travel. It’s normal for people to go back to change the past, and it’s interesting to see how different monsters cope with the inability to change their past. Just like Joan, I feel certain that there must be a way around things!

Other reviewers have suggested that there is a love triangle enemies/friends sort of romance going on. I’d say that that cheapens the storyline for me. It’s not about the boys that Joan is interested in, it’s about the love she has for her family – both monster and other.

Let me give it to you straight – this is the first book in a series. Before you go and give up hope, I can tell you that the ending of this novel is entirely satisfactory, and didn’t leave me hanging at all. I am really looking forward to getting to reread it in preparation of the next novel in the planned trilogy. 5 stars from me.

Allen & Unwin | 1 February 2022 | AU$22.99 | paperback

Review: Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera – What if it’s Us Duology

Posted on by
Reply

What if it’s Us Duology
Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera

What if it’s Us?

Ben and Arthur meet by accident as Ben tries to post a box of mementoes back to his ex-boyfriend and Arthur tries to grab himself a moment alone in New York. Arthur’s never dated a boy before, he’s not even sure he’s had a crush on one quite as badly as on Ben. In a world where summer is short, will the paths of these boys cross again when the Universe interferes?

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was the ending. It could have made or ruined the novel, particularly as I knew there was a sequel. It turned out to be perfect. I unfortunately made the mistake of reading the second before reviewing the first. Oops? But I was just so excited to keep reading about Ben and Arthur! I needed to still be with them.

Here’s to Us

Ben has mostly moved on with his life without Arthur. He’s sort-of dating a hot new guy, he’s making do with his college classes and job. Arthur has a great new boyfriend who’s sweet, caring and… isn’t Ben. A series of Universe Events means that they will collide, but will their worlds align again?

This novel is filled with hope, and real relationships where it seems crazy that things could line up. I honestly could have been happy with any of the relationships that formed and broke apart. Despite being a feel-good novel, it does still briefly touch on racism and socioeconomic bias. Not everyone is bright enough to get a scholarship for school, and not everyone wants to go to college (or finish college).

Thanks Simon and Schuster for these review copies. They look fantastic on my new shelves, and I loved reading both of them. This’ll be a reread when I’m feeling a bit down – a goodhearted and satisfying read.

Simon & Schuster | January 2022 | AU$17.99 | paperback

Review: JingJing Xue – Shanghai Acrobat

Posted on by
Reply

Shanghai Acrobat
JingJing Xue

“Jingjing Xue was born in China in 1947, during a period of civil war. Jingjing, left in an orphanage in Shanghai, was destined to a life of hardship before officials singled him out and enlisted him to train with the Shanghai Acrobatics School. Shanghai Acrobat tells the moving story of Jingjing’s rise from poverty to become an admired performer in China and beyond. Through the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution, he realised the value of freedom. This is a story of hope and perseverance, of overcoming adversity and of finding a place to belong.”

I listened to this as a talking book after I was disappointed by the last two fiction audiobooks I tried. Unfortunately this one let me feeling a bit cheated. I expect and enjoy memiors that are filled with human nature and the feelings of their writer. This memior fails for me because it is filled with too much dry history and is quite repeditive. Someone who enjoys history will probably get more out of this book than me.

I learnt from this book that in Shanghai it is the custom to give children the same first name twice, so JingJing was originally named Jing. That’s something I’ll now be able to talk to my students about – so it’s not a dead loss!

While I admire JingJing’s devotion to ‘endure’, it didn’t seem like he could or would be evicted from the troop. This created an aura of holier-than-thou around him that didn’t seem to be cracked by the fact that many people he knew didn’t make it out of China. I didn’t get any sense of his humanity, and his relationships came off as quite sterile.

I don’t think this should be compared to Mao’s Last Dancer. While both books might cover the period of the Cultural Revolution of early Communist China, this book is more about history and Last Dancer is about the process of becoming the best. I wouldn’t recommend this book.

Review: Helen Hoang – The Heart Principle

Posted on by
Reply

The Heart Principle
Helen Hoang

Anna Sun had a moment of fame performing unexpectedly at a concert where the original main attraction had had a car accident! What came from that moment was fame to a level she doesn’t know what to do with, and pressure to perform. A blind-date one-night-stand with Quan, a tattooed and dangerous-looking guy, will be just the thing to get her life back in order, and show her boyfriend that she’s not just going to accept an open relationship.

Hoang reports that she had problems completing this novel, just as her protagonist struggles to continue with her music. I’m so sorry, Helen, if I may be so familiar with you to use your first name. I didn’t find The Heart Principle to be as good as The Kiss Quotient or The Bride Test. I wanted fresh new characters and situations that didn’t feel so convenient.

You don’t need to read either of Hoang’s first novels to place this one in context. That being said, it kind of contains a spoiler for The Kiss Quotient – but not really as you kind of expect all romances to have a happy ending? I’m really keen to read more from Hoang, provided that she steps away from the characters she has already plotted with.

This novel again approaches the topic of how women’s autism presents differently to those in males. I didn’t resonate with Anna’s character or quirks at all, but that doesn’t mean that she can’t be a role model for another human diagnosed with autism or even just being on the autistic spectrum. I’m happy to see more accessible neuro-diverse novels being offered and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to any type of romance reader.

I might reread this one, but if I’m looking for a standard male-female romance, I will definitely reach for the other two first. 4 stars from me.

Review: Catherine Ryan Howard – 56 Days

Posted on by
1

56 Days
Catherine Ryan Howard

Ciara and Oliver bump together in a seemingly-innocuous moment of time – both waiting to buy their lunch. Ciara seems shy, and is surprised that Oliver would pay her any attention. Oliver is worried about getting her attention, but it’s not clear why. When lockdown against COVID-19 occurs, Oliver invites Ciara to move in with him. 56 days later, there’s a body in Oliver’s apartment.

This was gripping! For a while, I wasn’t even sure which character was the one who had ended up dead. I was even vaguely hoping that it was a total stranger dead in there, but then I noticed the blurb, and that ruined it for me. So trust me, just pick up the book and read it, don’t read the blurb. I stayed up late and got told off – but I just needed to know what happened next!

This novel keeps twisting, but not in a way that is at all predictable. You think that you know everything about all three of the perspectives, but it turns out that 2/3 of them are only telling the reader a partial truth. I had forgotten how much I can enjoy an unreliable narrator when it’s a three-perspective novel (even though normally multiple perspectives isn’t my thing).

I’m absolutely raving about this novel. Go out and buy it. You’d think that a novel set in our current pandemic would be depressing or gloomy, but instead we see people making the most of the opportunities they have – even if it might be to get away with murder. I’ll be interested to see crime patterns in the real world in years to come too!

I can’t wait to unleash this book on others in my life. I’m going to make sure they don’t read anything about it first, and go in blind. Then I’m going to pick their brain at each step to see if they can work out the TRUTH. It won’t be quite as good as a reread for me, but I think it’s still worth it. 5 stars from me.

Allen & Unwin | 5th January 2022 | AU$29.99 | paperback

Review: Lucinda Riley – The Seven Sisters: Maya’s Story

Posted on by
Reply

The Seven Sisters: Maya’s Story
Lucinda Riley

Maya’s Pa Salt has passed away unexpectedly, and Maya finds herself lost without him and his solidity in their Genevan home. Not even her five sisters can console her – Maya was the first and most beautiful of them all. Challenged to find out her true history, Maya embarks to Rio where her story somehow began.

I slogged through this one for you all – it was an almost 20 hours behemoth of a talking book, and I only got through it because I couldn’t be bothered finding a different audiobook to listen to while painting. It was that bad that I sometimes considered silence a better option. It was repetitive in parts, and it was obvious what the ending/outcome of Maya’s search would be.

The level of detail is stifling – we know exactly what they eat, but it’s lacking the visceral responses that must be there. Wooh! We are in France, we must once again eat olives, cheese and bread. Oh no, she’s sad she doesn’t have her one-true-love.

I thought I had previously read one of this series, and found it to be The Storm Sister. It looks like I didn’t really enjoy that one either. The only reason I borrowed this was because I recently saw some hype about ‘The Missing Sister’, which will be the concluding novel of the sequence. I shouldn’t have bothered. I’m giving it three stars because I finished it, but honestly you shouldn’t waste your time on it. Tighter editing and word-count limits could have massively improved this novel.

Review: Peter Sheahan – Flip (S)

Posted on by
Reply

Flip
How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings
Peter Sheahan

“Emphasizing flexible, counterintuitive decision making, Flip calls for a new way of doing business in an economy where conventional wisdom won’t get you anywhere.”

Let me set you straight from the beginning. I read this as an audiobook and it was pretty average. There is nothing new on offer in this book. I had to force myself to keep listening – I didn’t even really want to finish it because then I would have to review it.

I believe the whole point of the book was that in business you need: fast, good, or cheap – pick 3. The idea was that it’s not good enough to have only 2 of these in your business, you need all 3 and then even a 4th which sets you apart from your competition. Besides that, the rest of the points are examples of businesses that have done things differently.

Unfortunately it doesn’t actually give you any insight to take away with you. It had a few good stories that you listen and tune into, but others I found myself no longer paying attention to them. The stories didn’t seem to link back to any points, sometimes the main point, but usually didn’t link it to anything. The difference between the start, middle and end of the book is absolutely nothing. It’s all just one big blob on the same thing. Throughout, it gives a lot of stats and I mean A LOT, but they are not meaningful. They are not put in a way that makes that statistic seem astonishing. I particularly found myself tuning out at these times.

It might have been better for the time that it was released but now the book is getting outdated as it was released in 2008 – over 10 years ago now! I know the author makes a point that the overall theme of the book is still true and relevant. But when the author goes into so much detail explaining MySpace, it’s hard to make this connection.

The author also jumps around a lot with the stories, they really just seem randomly thrown in. He mentions Toyota at least 6 times, so you would think I would come away knowing a bit about Toyota. But instead the message is lost and it’s hard to make sense of it. The Toyota examples could have been all together in a Toyota case study style not scattered throughout.

I wouldn’t recommend this book. 2 stars
.

Chris d’Lacey – The Last Dragon Chronicles Series (A)

Posted on by
Reply

The Last Dragon Chronicles Series
Chris d’Lacey

“When David moves in with Elizabeth Pennykettle and her eleven-year-old daughter, Lucy, he discovers a collection of clay dragons that come to life. David’s own special dragon inspires him to write a story, which reveals the secrets behind a mystery. In order to solve the mystery and save his dragon, David must master the magic of the fire within – not only with his hands but also with his heart.”

This is a review of all five books in the initial series, written by a 12-year old reader who was promised a trip to the library if she wrote one! Who am I kidding, we would have gone anyway… I’ve had to reword slightly so that it isn’t filled with spoilers.

I really enjoyed these novels up until the last book. The other four were compulsive and absorbing reading, but the ending of the fifth ruined the series for me. There was a lot of death and it didn’t seem like a good ending.

My favourite parts were the clay dragons and the short stories, anything with a dragon would be good enough for me. My favourite character was Liz because she was good at making clay dragons. I could have done without Dr Bergstrom’s character. He didn’t do anything and disappeared with no explanation.

I’d recommend it to anyone who likes characters dying. It’s aimed at my age or slightly older. It’s for dragon lovers because they are awesome dragons. 3.5 stars for the series because the ending was terrible.

Review: Michael McQueen – The New Rules of Engagement (S)

Posted on by
Reply

The New Rules of Engagement
A Guide to Understanding & Connecting With Generation Y
Michael McQueen

“WHO ARE GENERATION Y ? To some they are the tech-savvy, well educated and ambitious youngsters poised to take on and change the world. Others, however, describe a disloyal, disrespectful and demanding generation who have never learned to wait or really work hard for anything… Get set for an entertaining, revealing and insightful look inside the minds of today’s young people.”

This book was pretty good! The first half of the book goes through what a generation is and each of the generation types. Normally this is the boring part of business books where it just explains the definitions and how it currently is. I actually found this section the best part! Perhaps it was because I am a Gen Y, and so I learnt about the other generations. Or perhaps simply because it was funny and put the different generations in perspective – with different examples that we can relate to with others. The book definitely needs this first section.

The second half of the book is the “new rules”. This is the section where you are going to learn why Gen Y does what they currently do. What this means and how to communicate with Gen Y on “their terms”. I enjoyed this section of the book still, but not as much as the first. Again, as a Gen Y myself, I completely agree with everything that the author said. I also found that a lot of things I had previously put down to my personality is actually not unique to me, and is something that most Gen Y people do. I don’t think I learnt much from the second half as I knew most of it. However it’s definitely worth the read if you are not a Gen Y and are interested in understanding them.

I’m giving it a solid 4 stars, and highly recommend it for those engaging (haha) gen Y-ers across a wide range of context, not just business.

Review: Lucy Adlington – The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

Posted on by
3

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz
The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive
Lucy Adlington

“At the height of the Holocaust twenty-five young inmates of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp – mainly Jewish women and girls – were selected to design, cut, and sew beautiful fashions for elite Nazi women in a dedicated salon. It was work that they hoped would spare them from the gas chambers… Weaving the dressmakers’ remarkable experiences within the context of Nazi policies for plunder and exploitation, historian Lucy Adlington exposes the greed, cruelty, and hypocrisy of the Third Reich and offers a fresh look at a little-known chapter of World War II and the Holocaust.”

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel approach to World War II history in a way that made it approachable and interesting to me. For anyone who has an interest in fashion this book is going to be a great read. The author clearly had favourites! The key two women presented in a favourable light were Hanyu, who she presents as fearless and spunky, and Marta, who is compassionate for her team.

I have to complain a little that I found the multiple narrative perspectives difficult to follow. I would have much preferred that each chapter approached what a single woman faced at a time, particularly near the end. I couldn’t work out who died, or who lost their entire family – but perhaps this was deliberate to highlight the sheer number of murders in this book.

There is a lot of background information before we get to the part where the women make dresses! Since I was expecting it to focus on the fashions and specific circumstances of the dressmakers, I spent the first half of the book waiting for ‘action’. This was shallow of me, as I did learn a lot of facts about the Holocaust from a woman’s perspective, which I think has been unstudied/undiscussed in this area of work.

The old adage is that truth is stranger to fiction – in this case non-fiction is horrific enough that it’s not necessary to read a fictional horror novel! I find myself still better fascinated with true history such as this book and the upcoming Always Remember Your Name, or The Keeper of Miracles, rather than fictional novels set in the time of World War II. That being said, I did read The Kitchen Front recently which of course had a rather simplistic happy ending.

Hachette | 31 August 2021 | AU$34.99 | paperback