Category Archives: Book Reviews

Review: bud smith (editor) – First Time

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First Time
bud smith (editor)

This novel is a collection of essays, stories and poems about the first time the authors had sex. I only bought this ‘novel’ because one of my favourite authors had written a piece for it. Sadly, it didn’t turn out anything like I hoped, not to mention the humping bunnies on the front cover

18364966By the feel of things, I think the authors had a wide scope of what they could write. For me, I hate poetry. I especially hate random poetry where I can’t work out any of what is going on. Other examples were of not-true stories. What is the point of writing expository fiction if your reader can’t connect in any way with it?

It’s stupid of me, but for some reason I thought this would be a collection of stories about queer people’s first times. I figured this because two of the authors that I knew had works in this book were gay, and I liked their other pieces. So as such, this ‘novel’ wasn’t for me. I’m not interested in the first times of straight people, generally these seem to be boring. Queer people (and I know I am generalising here) have more interesting first times, or first meetings, because half the time they don’t know what they want or if their partner will be willing, available and accepting.

Honestly, I read about half this book, picking and skipping authors that I wasn’t interested in. There is no way I would have read it in its entirety. I will be freeing it into the wild in the hopes that other people might get something out of it. If you’re queer, I’d recommend the Letter Q instead for relatable fiction. Let’s give this one 2-3 stars and call it a day.

2star

Review: Brandon Sanderson – Calamity

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Calamity
Brandon Sanderson

David has defeated Steelheart and Regalia, but now he has to face down the worst Epic of them all – Prof., who used to lead the Reckoners into battles against the other Epics. With the tiny crew he has left, David must save the USA once again.

15704486I couldn’t put this novel down. I think I start almost every Brandon Sanderson novel in that way. I didn’t realise it was out until an ill-timed comment from my partner just as I was going to sleep. I then had trouble sleeping because I wanted it right then and there. I begged to have it the next day, but I ended up getting it the day after and polishing it off in a single sitting.

David has kept the same terrible metaphors as before. His romance with Firefight ie. Megan has blossomed. Their sort of love is one born in flames (haha, you’ll get it when you read the novel). In fact, I recognise their relationship style as one I’m familiar with – they dig at each other, irritate each other, but at the end of the day they can’t be apart.

The action in this novel starts from day dot, and just keeps moving. David and his team risk being killed if they don’t keep on their toes.

The final twist! Or at least, the bigger twist. There are always more to come. Ugh! It frustrates me that I can’t just tell you all the fabulous things about this novel that I want to – but then you’d know everything. Spoilers are not a reviewer’s best friend.

Sanderson, you’ve done it again. Another thrilling, fantastic, original novel that will have readers of all ages on the edge of their seats. Some romance, but no sex, I’m pretty sure teenagers and up would love it. I’m only sad that I never ran into Sanderson earlier in my reading career.

I have two more Sanderson novels, which the partner has been nagging me about reading. The only reason I haven’t is because I’m waiting to have time to reread the others in the series. Sanderson, I love you, but you would eat all my time if I let you.

5star

Review: Ken Kroes – 2232 (Percipience #3)

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2232, Percipience Series
Ken Kroes

Time has progressed another 10 years since the town of Percipience was discovered by two other cities. While things are going relatively smoothly, some people harbor grudges for so long that they will damage everything.

27836641Why do people lie? Seriously guys. Ugh. It seems like everyone is crossing everyone, except Percipience who I loved (having loved the set-up of it in the first place).

I really hope that genetic modification could become reality. People would argue about taking away free will and all that, but truly it wouldn’t be so sad. You would still have your mind, you’d just be more grateful for what you already had.

There were anagrams. For a while, I thought they were like Hannah, a word that works the same way back and forwards. But in fact they’re where you scramble up the letters to create new words. I managed to work out two using an online solver, but the other ones I just couldn’t work it out. Frustrating!

I really want to go back and reread the ending of this. There’s nothing I can say without giving it away, but mind-blown. Really blown. I really hope another novel comes along. There are some hints as to how it could proceed. The whole time I was reading this one I was terrified that it would be a true ‘series’ rather than what read to me as an entire satisfying trilogy.

5star

Review: Ken Kroes – 2222 (Percipience #2)

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2222, Percipience Series
Ken Kroes

Here we return to the world 200 years after ‘The Great Loss’ where most of the world’s population was wiped out by a deadly virus. 4 villages remain, and a lone outside village has finally come into contact with them. The only problem is that the new town is built for an old consumerist population.

27836560I want to feel sorry for Epoch, and yet at the same time I don’t. If Clyde can understand this different way of living, others can too. Or is it that in Percipience people who were like that have been wiped out? Nature vs nurture things here.

The characters are well realised and relatable. I recognised the ‘kind’ of each of them, and thought about how the Elders were just as manipulative as Jake. This novel reminds me again that I don’t understand most people. I’d love to just work in the morning, and enjoy the afternoon reading.

Wow. Deadly. Twisted! Amazing! I didn’t see things coming. Science! Chemistry! Awesomeness! Insert a very long stretch of adjectives here…

I can’t wait to read the third book, and the only reason I’m not doing it right now is so that I could write this review and not get them confused in my mind. I’m going to be pretty devastated by the end of it probably, so wait for my sobbing review soon.

This book is an incredible improvement over the first. The writing is tighter, and the editing cleaner the further you read along. I’m giving this one 5 stars. Go and buy it. It will make you think about the world in a different way.

5star

Review: David Adam – The Man Who Couldn’t Stop

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The Man Who Couldn’t Stop
David Adam

There’s no such thing as ‘a little bit OCD’. People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can’t stop their thoughts. They might obsess about germs, AIDs or burning the house down. Or they might fear they will steal money or stab their own baby. They perform compulsive rituals in order to prevent their thoughts from coming true, but it never goes away. Nor do the thoughts usually come true. It’s just a bit of brain biology / mind psychology gone wrong.

9781447259374This novel is a bit of a mix between memoir, textbook and examples. It doesn’t profess to provide any concrete answers. Instead it explores the history of OCD, different interesting cases of OCD and indeed the almighty DSM-5 that is used for categorizing mental illness everywhere.

I learnt about the difference between OCD and OCPD. So many people who say they are ‘a little OCD’ might have OCPD (obsessive compulsive personality disorder), but in fact they have nothing like OCD. For an OCD sufferer, their life is hell. I’ll keep that in mind, and next time someone gives me that line, maybe instead we can have an honest conversation about mental illness and how things are. It is one thing to accept mental illness, and another to trivialise it.

You don’t have OCD? You don’t know anyone with OCD? You’ve somehow never heard about it? Seriously. Get on and read this novel. You won’t be disappointed.

Review: Tara Winkler – How (not) to Start an Orphanage

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How (not) to Start an Orphanage
Tara Winkler

Tara first came to Cambodia over 10 years ago on a long-needed vacation. What she found there were horrific orphanage conditions and suffering that she knew shouldn’t exist. When she returned home, she was determined to raise funds and help those children in need. The process ended up to be slightly more complicated than she expected, and this is the story of that 10 years.

29556438Wow. This novel. Non-fiction is winning at the moment. This was fantastic and well-written. I felt myself at Tara’s side, and I absolutely empathised with every situation she found herself in, likely or not. We are walked through her childhood and highschool years, and then her ‘career’ after that. There are so many situations that Tara found herself in, and it feels like she has done justice to describing them in this novel.

Tara learns a bit of everything, she has to! And so does the reader. I had never really been interested in child attachment psychology, but wow, it is so obvious. I was reading recently about another novel I think where there was a room full of babies in an orphanage – and the room was silent. When asked what was wrong with the babies, the manager replied that the babies had learnt that crying didn’t do anything.

In reading this novel, you’re going to have to look at both the positive and negatives of orphanages. The main take home of this novel is to remember that orphanages are not actually in a child’s best interest. The best is to have them in their own family, and then provide support services to help them remain there.

This is non-fiction, so I won’t be rating it. It’s well worth the read.

 

Review: Sara Farizan – Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel

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Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel
Sara Farizan

Leila has made it through school without crushing on anyone. That is, until wild-child, sophisticated Saskia turns up and starts to invade Leila’s school days… and then her life.

20312458Leila is challenged by her Persian background, and I learnt a lot about that culture just reading this novel. I particularly loved the way Leila’s older sister was characterised. I could have had more here!

There are so many other little stories going on in this. And the main thing is to note that things are hardly ever how they seem. Not only is Saskia not what Leila expected, her other friends, her family and her childhood best friend aren’t predictable. Seriously though, Leila’s friends were sometimes just a little too dumb and ignorant for their own good.

I wanted to love this book, I really did. It’s queer fiction, a coming-out story of a young lesbian. The thing is, that it was very repetitive and predictable, not to mention that the pace was glacial for the first half of the novel. If you’re just getting into queer fiction, this could be a novel for you. If you are desperate for reassurance that it’s ok to be gay, this book might be it. But everyone’s stories are different.

I’m giving this novel 3 stars, and recommending my forever-favourite of Keeping You a Secret or perhaps Read Me Like a Book for the beginning lesbian.

3star

Review: Emery Lord – When We Collided

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When We Collided
Emery Lord

Vivi is off her medication and determined to feel the whole summer in her body. Jonah has lived his whole life in that one place, yet now he is going to discover that strangers can help in the strangest of ways.

27235365I think it is more that their lives have already fallen apart, and that the collision is going to bring only good things. A big mess can only start to clear up right? Vivi is a disaster some of the time, but she at least has a good grasp of life (to an extent). Vivi are so different in what they know about the world, and together they can conquer anything.

The cover you see to the left is way, WAY more brilliant and bright in real life. I wanted to read this the moment I received it, even without knowing that Vivi had a mental illness. Drool. I jumped in, and then I was stuck. Stayed up past my bedtime and it followed me to work.

I’m not sure I can agree with the ending. OK, summer is over. But why, why, why? That’s all I can say about that. Ugh. Rationally I might know it is for the best, but it’s also really sad. Why shouldn’t things work out for everyone?

I couldn’t be any happier with this book. It has a bit of everything, it didn’t give away too much at any time, and the story kept progressing quickly. You can see Vivi and Jonah both changing in ‘real time’, and it feels like you are just a stroll away from them in Verona Cove, California.

4star

Review: Kylie Formasier – The Things I Didn’t Say

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The Things I Didn’t Say
Kylie Formasier

Piper is a selective mutist. No, not a selective Muslim, like I originally thought when I looked at the blurb. A mutist. Someone who finds it impossible to speak to people outside their own family environment, or a friend they are very close too. Piper would like to speak, but her anxiety is so strong that she cannot overcome it. After having a major fight with a friend, Piper has transferred schools to try have a new start…

26891896I cannot be thankful enough for the novels that are normalising uncomfortable issues at the moment, such as bipolar disorder, dementia, depression, anxiety. These are the novels that should have always been out there. It is not that the number of people with mental illnesses has gone up (although this is true for the adult population), but our rates of diagnosing it are improving.

I loved this novel. Piper is plucky and yet shy at the same time. She does things in her own way, and makes dents in the world just by being herself. For one so quiet, she has a very strong voice. As you go along with her to school and through her life, you notice how she gradually speaks more inside her head, and then outside.

Love story alert! But I’m totally buying it. The thing is that Piper has never spoken a word to West, but she has written notes. It’s not like they don’t talk at all! It is more of Piper’s fear that she will never be able to talk out loud to express love that is the problem.

I didn’t understand why the coma was Piper’s fault. You play sport, you get hurt. It just happens, no big deal. my explanation is that when your child is hurt, it has to be anyone else’s fault but yours. Fear makes everyone act strangely.

I felt a little unsure about how things magically worked out for Piper at school, but good on her for getting up there and facing the bullies. I can imagine how impossibly hard it was for her, and I’d like to think it made a big difference outside just the community of her school.

I’ll be giving this one 4 stars. Well worth a summer read.

4star

Review: Johnny Actonis, David Glodblatt and James Wyllie – Time Travel Handbook

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Time Travel Handbook
Johnny Actonis, David Glodblatt, James Wyllie

Always wanted to go back in time? Perhaps the Fall of the Berlin Wall? Or the eruption of Vesuvus (you know, that volcano that preserved an entire village for centuries…)? Now you can, with illustrations in your tour handbook.

27212449Honestly, this novel wasn’t quite right for me. It’s history, written in a sort of fictional, accessible format. Unfortunately I’m not interested in history at the best of times. I was hoping that this novel would pull me in a bit, but it wasn’t quite powerful enough to overtake me. I read selections of this, and enjoyed those. I made sure to just pick those ones though, English history bores me silly (but I can totally go for the Berlin Wall).

It’s like a modern ‘Where’s Wally’! Except it is more writing focused (although there are suitable pictures). I’d see this as a great gift for teenagers getting into history studies, or younger people. It’s got a great overview and witty take on history that is going to get people less jaded than me into it.

I’m not putting this book down at all. It would really be a fantastic addition to any library that might come in contact with young people. If you’re trying to get someone into history, and you can’t use ‘The Last Samurai’ movie (that’s what we did in high school) to do it, this novel might do the trick.