Category Archives: Book Reviews

Review: Rosanne Hawke – The Truth About Peacock Blue

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The Truth about Peacock Blue
Rosanne Hawke

Aster’s brother dies from asthma, and suddenly she is to become the scholar in the family. As a Christian family in a Muslim-majority Pakistan, going to school holds more perils than she expects. Cast into prison for a crime she didn’t commit, this is a novel told through her perspective and the blog of her Australian cousin.

26510513This novel is an expose of what can go wrong in a country mad about laws, and belittling women. It doesn’t matter what religion you are, you just need to be a woman. Women might be the majority, but they certainly have the quietest voices.

Something I liked about this novel was the way that it didn’t cringe from the realities in prison life. Just because people are thrown into jail together doesn’t mean that they are all equal or able to care for themselves. I don’t know about the legitimacy of this part of the novel, but I can hope it was well-researched.

I was not satisfied by the end of the story. I know this is based on a true story, but for something to make an impact as a novel for me, then I want a bit more of an ending. I found myself wondering after I’d finished reading it, whether I had actually finished it.

I found the letter/blog parts and the comments to be relatively boring, and the least attractive part of the novel. Blogging is certainly a good way of getting messages across, but as its noted in the novel, it doesn’t mean that you are going to be listened to, or safe from idiots.

I think this book covers a good range of topics that would be important in middle-eastern society, regardless of whether the players are Muslim, Christian or Hindi. It shows the mindlessness of the masses, and the ingrained way of doing things for years and years. For that reason, I think this novel could overtake The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif as a potent VCE teaching tool.

3star

Thanks to the folks at Allen and Unwin for providing me with this review copy.

Review: John A. Flanagan – The Tournament at Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice Early Year)

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The Tournament at Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice Early Year)
John A. Flanagan

After being dismissed as a Ranger of the King, Crowley travels with Halt to try to stop the influence of Morgarath spreading. As they discover that the rot is deeper than they thought, they must gather all the Rangers they can to confront the man facing them. As being a Ranger becomes more dangerous and the plots more costly, it’s not obvious if there will be a clear winner.

26701713I’m not sure how I felt about this novel. It had been long enough that I no longer really remembered the original Ranger’s Apprentice story, so I would say that I read this novel as a stand alone. I’m not sure I want to read the sequel to this one – I simply didn’t get vested enough in the characters.

I think something that spoke false to me, but would have been good for other younger readers, was the terminology used. There was too much stating of what the leadership role was, what fishing skills were important, and less on the actual characters’ voices.

It was too simple. I knew what was going to happen, and I never felt a sense of urgency. Everything would turn out fine, regardless of what the characters did! I felt like I didn’t really get to ‘know’ any of the characters. I certainly loved Halt. Which I suppose I was supposed to, but it helped that most of the novel was from his perspective.

For a novel that didn’t seem to have much magic in mind, the epilogue left me feeling somewhat unbalanced. There were barely any hints about it beforehand (just something that seemed like filler to expand the character).

So with that in mind, I’m giving it 3-4 stars. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing particularly outstanding either. I’ve lent this to my partner’s brother to find out what he thinks of it as a younger reader and having read all of the other books in the series. I’ll keep my twitter updated with the results!

3star

I received a complimentary copy from the wonder folks at Penguin Random House Australia.

Review: Seth Dickinson – The Traitor

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The Traitor
Seth Dickinson

The Empire of Masks has come to conquer Baru’s home. Baru is collected into the Empire’s new school while her old life crumbles – same sex relationships are now cause for torture and death. Baru wants to save her homeland and is driven to do anything to save it – even when it looks like it will be too late.

26055193Baru, Baru, Baru. I don’t understand you. I found it really difficult to connect to any of the characters, and at one point I asked my partner why on earth I kept reading! But there must have been something there, because I lost the two afternoons to reading it after it arrived in my inbox as an ebook (and I don’t even like reading ebooks, because they dry out my eyes!).

Baru’s bird counting was supposed to tip me off that she was a savant, but I didn’t get it. Only after reading the novel and the last couple of notes did I really understand what that really meant for her. Perhaps they should have said autistic savant. According to my good friend the online dictionary a savant is: ‘a person who knows a lot about a particular subject’ or ‘a person who does not have normal intelligence but who has very unusual mental abilities that other people do not have’.

 

The beginning caught me. I didn’t understand why the first couple of ‘chapters’ were written differently from the others, and in fact, I don’t think they were necessary. I guessed that they were supposed to tell me how important Baru’s family was to her, but this isn’t repeated throughout the novel. Instead, it turns to the drama and suspense of winning over a war-torn country using the financial system.

What I missed was the subtext that should have warned me about the ending. How will she save her own people? How does she know who is still alive? How do I know that she cares about them? I had left the novel with 9 pages remaining overnight, and I wanted to know how it ended. Yet I don’t know how I really feel about the ending.

My question is whether there is going to be as second novel. Or perhaps Dickinson feels like he has done enough to expose how empires can be made to crumble or how a single person can mean the difference between a ‘democracy’ or a ‘sovereignty’. Or whether he has sufficiently taught us how monsters are created.

I simply can’t give this 5 stars like some other reviewers. Yes, it’s good, yes, you’ll feel things, but I’m not sure I can accept it as a reread for me. In the end, my emotions had been so wrung out that I couldn’t care about any of them. I remain confused about it, which is perhaps a good sign. Go and read it for yourself, but be prepared for the unexpected.

4star

 

Review: Ellen Wittlinger – Razzle

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Ellen Wittlinger
Razzle

 

Ken has been forced to move to a random place in Cape Cod – a holiday place that his parents have imagined doing up in their retirement. Summer promises to be boring and distasteful – except that a girl he meets at the junk yard promises to be interesting and photogenic. As summer progresses, Ken falls for the more deadly Harley and makes a complete mess of things.

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I confess again, that I listened to this novel, then debriefed with my partner, then took 2 months to write a review! So my ideas are quite old by this point. She’s apparently going to start recording me when I rage about novels.

Photography is the linking theme in this novel. But if you want a good novel that has photography in it for teenagers I’d personally suggest

This novel really highlights how teenage boys think. As nice as Ken is, when he’s faced with a sexy girl vs a nutter, he goes for the sexy one, much to the disgust of the reader. I can’t blame him actually.

Razzle is very odd. Yet the eventual revelation by her mother, while it shakes her, doesn’t surprise the reader. In fact, it left me feeling somewhat cheated. As a climax for the novel, it was weak and insignificant.

While the blurb suggests that Razzle might forgive Ken, I think she’d be better off not doing it! The ending pages of the book are flakey and uncertain – I’m sure this is supposed to be a metaphor for something important, or perhaps just an open discussion on friendship and love.

I gave this 3 stars straight after I had read it. I’m not going to be retracting that score, although I’d consider revising it down. It was saved only by its reader, who did a bloody good job of trying to make something of nothing.

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Review: Robin Benway – Emmy & Oliver

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Emmy & Oliver
Robin Benway

Emmy has lived in the same house for all her life. Born on the same day as her best friend Oliver, it seems like nothing will ever change. But when he is taken away from her for 10 years – spirited away by his father during a visit, Emmy and her family just have to keep coping. When Oliver returns, it seems like things haven’t changed – and yet they have in such ways that the players in the game don’t know what to do next.

24733940I honestly don’t know why I kept reading this novel. It wasn’t anything particularly special. I guess this was just a nice, easy, sort of comforting read that I knew everything would turn out ok in the end. No big revelations to shake the boat, no real climax towards the end. Everything just turned out just fine. And I’m sorry if that’s a spoiler to you, but honestly, the minute you read the first chapter, you’ll twig on it.

It’s an interesting examination of what happens after someone is abducted, and the far-reaching consequences of that. But the thing is, most people aren’t lucky enough to get to come home. Oliver’s mother has moved on without him, but Emmy obviously hasn’t. Although we only get Emmy’s side of the story, it feels as if we also get a good look into Oliver’s psyche as well.

The romance in this is clean, the characters aren’t into anything particularly bad, and it’s a nice enough novel. There’s some love interest in non-straight couples, some family love, love love love for all of the characters. If anything, Caro gets the short shift! It’s no wonder she goes completely nuts at Emmy at one point in the novel…

There isn’t anything wrong with this novel, there’s just nothing particularly spectacular about it. I’ll be giving it 3 stars, and suggesting that it’s a great novel for reluctant teenage readers.

3star

Review: Kathryn Barker – In the Skin of a Monster

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In The Skin of a Monster
Kathryn Barker

Alice’s twin sister killed people in their local school. Since she was identical to Alice, people can’t see Alice for who she is, they can only see her deadly sister. When Alice is swept up into a dream world, things get even more complicated, and it’s no longer clear what is going on.

25380845DON’T READ THE BLURB. It will trick you into thinking that this novel is straightforward. Instead, you need to go into it with a mind blasted wide open, with the ability to let it stretch further. This is one very strange novel.

I would have liked a more concrete approach to dealing with things. Swapping between the different perspectives was more confusing that I would have liked. I just couldn’t grasp anything that was going on. Nevertheless, the dream-scape set up is amazing and well described. The author appeared to think of everything that could possibly exist in it – bubbles of people, monsters, everything else!

It was quite compulsive reading, despite its faults. Did I actually like Alice? No, most of the time I thought she was an idiot. Did I really understand what happened? Goodness no. Did I keep reading anyway? Yes. I ended the novel feeling completely disorientated and annoyed. Even after running over the plot with my partner, I couldn’t work out what the point of the whole novel was.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this novel is going to expose great secrets of a person who looks like a murderer. Yes, killing people causes a great lasting impact, but people do recover. I don’t think this shows enough recovery. Mainly it shows people being stupid.

I can only think negatives about how Alice punishes herself for being like her sister. She’s committed to a mental institution for 3 years. I can understand the guilt she feels, but at the same time it should have been obvious to her that it’s not her fault and that she isn’t the same person. This got even more confusing for me as time went on, because it wasn’t clear whether Alice had demented thinking caused by the incident, or it was from the beginning. Just because you are identical to someone doesn’t mean you have to live like them.

I don’t know whether to suspend my disbelief for the story or not. In fact, unlike other novels I have read in this genre, this novel is not fiction that would fit into the everyday run of things. The attempts at making this fit into the Australian landscape fail miserably.

I mainly just came away from this very confused. There are other novels that are more awesome than this one. If you want to give this one a go, go right ahead. But if you’re looking for something with a convincing dreamscape, I’d be going for something like Dreamfire – I gave it 5 stars, go and try it out.

2star

Review: Rachel Caine – Ink and Bone

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Ink and Bone
Rachel Caine

Jess has been brought up as a book smuggler. In a world where the Great Library of Alexandria still exists, books are powerful things. With the library dictating all knowledge, librarians have absolute power – unless they are trainees, in which case death is a threat against changing the status quo. Jess isn’t very good at being passive, which tends to get him into a little bit of strife.

25090918Love, love, love this novel! What reader couldn’t like a novel about a library? Sorry, but libraries make me excited normally, and learning about librarian training? Yep, call me a convert. I’ve always dreamed of being a librarian.

My one sadness is that the next novel in this series won’t come out for ages. And I NEED the sequel. If I do not get my hands on the sequel, I will be very very sad. This is a novel I would gladly pay my own hard-earned money to buy. And naturally, I think you should too. The last novel I read that compares to this one would be The Iron Trial – not quite as awesome, but also good.

The characterisation in this novel was flawless. Jess was consistent and grew as the novel progressed. The secondary characters also won my love, even the ‘antagonist’, and I actually cared when they died. This is what Crystal Kingdom just didn’t capture for me. I kept thinking about those characters and their plights after I’d finished reading.

The world building was also powerful, and I could literally see each of the events as they happened. I buried myself in the novel and refused to come out, even for promises of dinner.One thing though, I left the novel having a really clear idea of the world, but having no idea what the characters looked like. I guess that’s because in my head, Jess has mousy brown hair, Morgan has flowing tresses of dark brown, and Wolfe sports a salt-and-pepper short cut.

A final touch that put the sugar flowers on the imaginary cake? There’s gay characters in the book, and they aren’t treated any differently from anyone else. I know it sounds like I’m biased towards novels that have gay characters (and I admit, I am a little biased), but really I just want a more realistic selection of characters to like.

An unequivocal 5 stars from me. I can see myself adopting this novel as an old familiar read when I want something I know is good to pull me out of a reading slump. Get out there, buy this novel, you won’t regret it.

5star

Review: Cassandra Clare & Holly Black – The Copper Gauntlet

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The Copper Gauntlet
Cassandra Clare & Holly Black

Call never seems to find any rest – unless he’s at school. When he has to return home for the holidays, he finds his father more set against school than ever, and a set of chains in the basement. Trust is something that seems to be fluid and bought and sold to the highest bidder. Call thinks he knows what he’s doing – everyone else thinks he is mad!

25613630Call and the other characters still didn’t seem to progress much. Aaron does grow a little, in that he wants to protect others not just have them protect him. But he doesn’t seem as smart as he does in the first novel. Not to mention poor Tamara gets sidelined.

There’s some underhand backbiting, and some potential treachery, but for me, these didn’t ring true. Surely they are old enough not to fight like 5-year-olds over a broken toy?

The ending was a little bit of a surprise, I really didn’t expect what happened! The Magisterium seemed a bit like a dumb hulking beast though, with more secrets than anyone could ever have. Hoping for a happy ending seems impossible.

This sort of feels like a ‘questing’ novel. All Call ever seems to do is head to the Magisterium, then immediately go back out again! There wasn’t any of the learning/teaching that went on in the first book to make me super interested and happy.

I’m not saying give this novel a miss by any means. In fact, I think you should get out there and read it for yourself. Once again though, I found myself waiting desperately for the next novel – I don’t want to wait a whole year!

Did this novel take me as strongly as the first one, The Iron Trial? No, sadly it didn’t. It simply didn’t have the same personality when I read it myself, rather than being read to by a talented voice-over. But I kept reading it. I don’t know why, but I did. That’s what makes it 4 stars not 3.

UPDATE: August 2020. I listened to The Iron Trial again, and then The Copper Gauntlet. I had pretty much completely forgotten everything about this second book, but the reader/voice actor kept me far more entertained with his narration. I’m now onto reading The Bronze Key, and I’m feeling pretty excited about it.

4star

Review: Janet Delee – Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts

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Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts
Janet Delee

Ginny has an Ideal Life plan. After her first 50 years of life, she wants to own her own home. Armed with a close friend who is a real estate agent, she sets out on the hunt. She needs some backup though, so she forms an ‘Ideal Life’ club, and gets together a group of misfits who want to be musicians, artists and writers, as well as a man who wants to work out his haunting problems.

25797569The book dragged on and on. I was half-way through before anything vaguely interesting happened. There were attempts to bring ghosts into things, but really the ghosts were minor inconveniences. I didn’t once feel frightened about the ghosts hurting any of the characters – it might have provided a well-needed pick-me-up for the action of the story!

The ‘twist’ in this was not really a twist. The hints towards something interesting happening? Simply hints. Nothing to see here folks, keep moving on. Just regular life ‘Ideal Life’ dreams that seem very short, and unimportant. I understand the worth of working towards something like that, but honestly it’s not very interesting to read about in a novel.

This novel was perfectly written. No, really, perfect. The problem was that there wasn’t a compelling storyline underneath it. The language choices and the sentence construction were all textbook perfect. But this also meant that the dialogue came across as ‘perfect’, and seemed quite stilted, because each of the characters used full words, and honestly, there was no distinctions in the way that made me like one more than another. If you read the text to me out loud, I wouldn’t be able to tell you which character was which.

I lie in wait this this author will bring other works out that I may love more, because the foundations for a fantastic novel are there – the author would just benefit from getting out there and grabbing a really dirty, fast-paced plot and slinking it into her beautiful writing style.

I want to give it 3 stars, and I would if I could think of an audience for it. Sadly for me, it was just so slow and boring that although I finished it, there are better things to read out there.

2star

Review: K.A. Tucker – Chasing River

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Chasing River
K.A. Tucker

River is the bad boy in town, and Amber the single-wanderer idiot. After an explosive first meeting, Amber finds herself wanting more of River, even as he tried to chase her away. Amber goes against her usual self and decides to grasp him anyway, finding herself getting more deeply involved every day.

23522253First things first – I didn’t read this as part of the series. I picked it up, hid it from my girlfriend, and promptly sat down to read it. Once she caught me, she tried to ruin it for me by telling me it’s the third book in a series! But it was too late, I was already hooked in. I did spend some time away from it thinking about going back to reading it, but no real in-depth wondering about what was happening to the characters while I was away.

I found myself frustrated by Amber and her naivety, but this was something I believe the author crafted. As the novel progressed, Amber became a bit less stupid – a bit more world-wise as her teacher would have wanted her to be. Still though, how could she be so stupid in the first place? Sure she was travelling Europe. But still, that she hadn’t been taken up and raped yet? When she’s happily wandering around where no-one else is?

The novelty of this book to me was that I never got many history lessons about Ireland, and this had a briefing on the Irish potato famine, which I had only ever heard of as a ‘joke’ by less politically-correct-minded friends. There were some really good discussions about the IRA (google it – or just be taught about it by the novel in a relatively unbiased manner) and references to Ireland’s oral culture. I could have done with more of this!

There seemed to be a lot of focus on how different Ireland was to Oregon. I’ve never been to Oregon, and I wouldn’t be able to tell you the difference between that town, and any other one. Amber constantly thinking about what it is like in her old home town isn’t useful, and doesn’t actually add to the storyline. More solid comparisons would have done the trick for me.

I’m putting this under the category of Young Adult, but only because of the sex scenes in it. Granted, they are brief, but they are slightly graphic. Otherwise I’d be putting it down as teenage fiction because its storyline isn’t that gripping, and I simply didn’t feel any depth – typical romance blah blah. At least Amber was smart enough to take some of her father’s advice….

I’ll be giving this a solid 3 stars, just because it wasn’t as ‘grabby’ and believable as I could have hoped. I remain willing to read more of this author, and see if this is a typical example of her work.

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