Review: S E Grove – The Waning Age

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The Waning Age
SE Grove

Natalia has lost her empathetic little brother after a wayward comment at her workplace insults the wrong person. She’s also got a huge bounty on her head after she embarrasses a bunch of Fish. Fish are people who don’t have feelings, and also don’t follow society’s rational norms – they’re killers. Natalia is pretty sure she doesn’t have feelings left either – but she’s determined to get her brother back.

The premise of this novel is interesting. When children get to the age of 10 or so, they lose their ability to feel things. So then at high school they are taught society’s rules and norms for how to behave. Somehow people’s brains have switched off the pathways to being empathetic for others. It’s a cool idea! I’m not sure how biologically possible it is at this point though.

I’m not sure how I felt about the execution of this novel. Calvino’s essay responses add a bit of variety, but ultimately it is Natalia’s journal that carries the plot. The journal entries left me feeling like there was a lot more to be said. Now, if that was a deliberate idea on the author’s behalf, because of course Natalia doesn’t ‘feel’ things anymore, that’s ok. But I needed something more to connect me with the characters.

None of the characters I cared about died, and nothing bad really seemed to happen to them. Bad things were threatened, and people did die, but they weren’t really important. I was too sure the whole time that Natalia would win. And that ending with where Cal ends up? Isn’t that just too convenient? All those coincidences just seem to line up…

Natalia reminded me of Maggie in Disruption (I always have to look up the name of the novel, I can never remember it!). Despite everything going against her, and only the rich being able to afford the good things in life, Natalia sticks it out and kicks butt, just like Maggie! I’m going to give this 3 stars, and suggest instead that you go and read Disruption instead for a kick-ass heroine and a more convincing plot.

Review: Nicola Yoon – The Sun is also a Star

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The Sun is also a Star
Nicola Yoon

Natasha will be deported before the day is out – but she’s willing to try anything to stay in America. Daniel happens to save her from being hit by a car, but he has his own life changing interview to attend. This novel is a story of how unexpected coincidences and fate can come together in just a single day.

Normally I would be irritated by a novel trying to cram too much importance into a single day. I thought to myself at the beginning of this one that I didn’t have much tolerance for the interspersed chapters from Natasha and Daniel, as well as the other randoms they happen to run into! But it grew on me, and in the end I was satisfied. I kept wanting to know the next coincidence to happen.

While I saw the ending coming, it was also very satisfying in a way that ‘Five years from now’ was not. It’s ok for people to drift apart! Even the epilogue was ok – I would have been ok with it not happening either. This book ended in a way that *Startalk* left me wanting. What’s wrong with an ending that isn’t roses for everyone?

I also read Everything, Everything a while back, and enjoyed it so when I saw this one I thought it could be a good distraction. I borrowed it through my local library’s eBook BorrowBox. Normally I hate reading on my phone, but in this case, it was convenient. I also saw a copy of it in a local (Greek) bookstore! I’m giving it 4 stars – I’m a little sad that I don’t own it, but I’m not going to rush out to buy it any time soon. Maybe if I saw it in a garage sale or similar.

Review: Kenneth Ring – Waiting to Die

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Waiting to Die:
A Near-Death Researcher’s (Mostly Humorous) Reflections on His Own Endgame
Kenneth Ring

“During his many years researching the near-death experience (NDE), Dr. Kenneth Ring was concerned with answering the question, “What is it like to die?” In this book of fifteen sparkling and delightfully witty essays, his question becomes more personal, “What is it like waiting to die?” More specifically, what is it like for an octogenarian who has spent half his life studying and writing about NDEs to face his own mortality? ”

I was offered this book to review, and I was attracted to it because the author writes and researches near-death experiences (NDEs). Cool! I thought to myself. I’ll get some interesting insights from this book of essays. The earlier essays were entertaining and informative, and I enjoyed reading them. As I went through them however I enjoyed them less. Perhaps I just don’t relate well to an aging man with prostate problems?

I’ve never feared death, so NDEs don’t freak me out. I think for someone who might be facing death presumably sooner than I would appreciate it! Growing old is a process, and I suppose dying of natural causes is also. The thing that resonated with me the most was that Kenneth reflects on being one of his last friends standing! Old age kills off your friends and family.

Something else the book raised for me was the research into near death lucidity, where people with dementia or similar mental losses suddenly revert to their old selves when dying. A fascinating concept that I would like to read more about for sure. I’m interested to read more of Kenneth’s professional work, even if ultimately this collection was not for me.

I’ve never been one for reading books of essays, any more than I like short stories. I like to have something really meaty to sink my teeth into. So that might have been one of the problems with this book. I think that different people are going to get different things, and not all of them are going to enjoy or appreciate all the essays. I’m on vacation right now, so I’m going to be releasing it into the wild. I hope that someone else enjoys it more!

Review: Elena Dunkle & Clare Dunkle – Elena Vanishing

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Elena Vanishing
Elena Dunkle & Clare Dunkle

Elena doesn’t have anorexia or an eating disorder or anxiety. She just carefully controls what she eats to make sure that she maintains the right number. When she doesn’t know what that number is, she can’t think straight – and she certainly can’t trust a psychologist to help her think straight either.

This is the true story of Elena’s recovery from anorexia as well as some of the causes and compulsions that underlie her disorder. What I found striking about this novel was that Elena is a caring person by nature, and yet she can’t care for herself. The root of the problem doesn’t become apparent until later in the book. We think that perhaps her sister has something to do with it, but ultimately that isn’t it. While I would have liked to know more about her sister, I also respect the family’s privacy.

Wow, the guts it must have taken for Elena to write this book with her mother. This is a memoir – so don’t expect it to be an easy read. What it is, is a raw and painful read that pulled at me and made me feel physically ill with Elena at the same time. I felt everything with her intimately. I’d like to read the memoir of Clare Dunkle now so that I can see the other side and perhaps get a bigger picture. It feels a little wrong of me to be so invested in personal aspects of their lives, but at the same time I’m so grateful to them for letting the reader in.

From the beginning of the book it was painful for me to read. If you have or have had an eating disorder or OCD you should think very carefully about reading this book as it has the potential to be really triggering. It’s not the rosy picture of recovery from an eating disorder that many fiction novels have – this is both deeply horrifying and reassuring at the same time. I’m not sure how to explain that exactly, but I guess it’s that the person themselves must be ready to change and that the science behind eating disorder treatment is constantly changing.

It’s horrifying to me that some people who need help won’t receive it because their insurance won’t pay. That someone with a life-threatening condition can just be kicked out if they can afford treatment. Would a hospital just toss someone out if they needed a heart bypass to survive, but they couldn’t pay? It seems like they wouldn’t – but anything that is perceived to be a personal problem or self-created problem like an eating disorder or mental illness doesn’t come under the same category of care. It’s not good enough, even if I don’t have a solution.

Review: Paige Toon – Five Years From Now

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Five Years From Now
Paige Toon

Nell wants to sleep on the bottom bunk when she visits her dad – there’s no way she’s giving up ‘her spot’ for Vian. But Vian’s mum is really nice too – and Vian and Nell have the beginning of a great friendship, or maybe more than just friends. But is there actually a spark? And what does it mean that they are as good as brother and sister?

No, I don’t care about your relationship, Nell and Van. Yes, I think you’re pathetic. Move on already. It might be a ground breaking romance but that doesn’t mean that without it you’re worthless. It could be ‘one true love’ or it could just be you poking a sore because you’re too afraid to move on. Oh, and not to mention that the cheeky Piskies just seemed to be a complete setup.

I hated the perspective in this novel. The novel starts out with Nell telling her son Luke a story, but then somehow at the end jumps into the future. It’s not clear where Nell’s memories begin and end. This novel reminded me of City of Girls, where the main character just seems to float around in her own mind and already knows the outcome and takes foreshadowing shots into the dark to confuse the reader. Except that at least in City of Girls the main character had a spine. I’m not sure Van does.

What I enjoyed about this novel was that it showed the hardships on divorced parents, not just their children. No, just because you’re having a baby doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to get married (or offer to get married). What about an abortion? It didn’t seem to cross any of their minds. Sometimes there isn’t a one right path – and that’s ok too.

I started and finished this novel reluctantly – my phone battery was dying and I couldn’t be bothered getting a different book from my suitcase to read. 2 stars from me. Don’t bother with it.

Penguin Random House | 30th April 2018 | AU$29.99 | paperback

Review: Catherine Jinks – Shepherd

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Shepherd
Catherine Jinks

It’s a hard life in New South Wales as a convict, but Tom Clay has his sheep and his dogs. There’s a big problem though – Dan Carver is going to kill him when he comes back. The arrival of a third shepherd, Rowdy Cavanagh should make Tom more relaxed, but Rowdy doesn’t know when to shut up. A fraught chase ensures across the wild Australian landscape.

What this novel brings home for me is the sheer amount of knowledge that white Australians have lost by effectively wiping out the native peoples. Tom is/was a poacher back in England and thus he understands a lot about animals and plants. In the bush he doesn’t understand anything though and he feels like everything is against him. Rowdy’s big mouth certainly doesn’t help him concentrate!

The cover suggests a murder mystery to me, with the pitchfork spearing the title. But what I got was nothing like that. Instead I felt like I was walking the bush with Tom and fearing for my own life. Unfortunately, I’m just not very excited by colonial Australian history. I studied the literature of the time and wasn’t that keen on it. I don’t really understand why I didn’t care for this novel, but I didn’t. It’s not something I’d necessarily read if I had a choice, which is why it came on vacation with me to force me to read it.

The writing style is smooth and the environment explicitly realised. Technically this novel is fantastic. Yet the ending felt cold to me and I could have put it down at any point. I didn’t connect with Tom enough and the deaths of other characters didn’t interest me. I finished this novel in the space of a couple of hours. 3 stars from me.

Text Publishing  | 2nd July 2019 | AU$29.99 | paperback

Review: Brigid Kemmerer – call it what you want

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call it what you want
Brigid Kemmerer

Maegan was a straight A student until the pressure of her perfect family got to her. She’s not their good girl anymore. But netither is her sister – pregnant and home from college unexpectedly. Paired with Rob who would rather fly under the radar until he graduates, can the two get over their prickly and worn edges to succeed?

Rob is a lovely tortured character determined to be miserable. If only he wasn’t quite so, charming? about it? I’m not quite sure what went wrong, but his character just didn’t sing true for me. Maegan on the other hand I could understand, but ultimately it ended up being more about her sister. And the romance between Rob and Maegan was sort of off I guess. They go from kissing to having her shirt off almost instantly as far as I can tell. No, I’m not ok with that, even in a YA novel. It seems like their family circumstances caused them to skip forward in time and not in a good way.

The ending of this was disappointing. It skipped forwards in time in such a way that I didn’t really believe in what happened. Also, the librarian? Really? Because no-one saw that coming… I wanted to shake Rob and Maegan half the time. And the rest of the time I wondered what on earth they were thinking.

I know that Kemmerer can produce novels that are far more intriguing and powerful than this one, so I found myself underwhelmed. How many normal teenage readers are going to be able to empathize with a multi-million dollar embezzling father?  Rob’s character is tortured and lonely and I entirely wanted him to succeed. What I did like was the way he couldn’t reconcile his own feelings about his father not being an asshole, with his father, well, being an asshole. Things just are never as simple as they seem.

The origami cover image leaves me pretty cold as well – neither of the two main characters are into it, and the pastel pink is just average. I connected more with Toffee (also published by Bloomsbury), and that was written in verse! Kemmerer, I’m not impressed. Please write the sequel to A Curse So Dark and Lonely ASAP instead.

Bloomsbury | 1st July 2019 | AU$16.99 | paperback

Review: Audrey Coulthurst & Paula Garner – Starworld

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Starworld
Audrey Coulthurst & Paula Garner

Sam’s a withdrawn artist with one best and only friend in the world. Somehow Zoe, a popular cute girl, enters into Sam’s universe through one of Sam’s paintings. Sam and Zoe aren’t sure they’ll be friends, but together they can escape into another world outside their complicated families.

The *star talk* of Zoe and Sam’s fantasy world together didn’t actually set me on fire (pun intended). I was more interested in their complicated emotions and cute ways of showing they cared. For example, Sam’s mom packs her a lunch in foods that are colour coded and divisible by four (which I personally find a very odd manifestation of OCD – but who am I to judge?). Then they share and make crazy flavour combinations.

Look, I’m not sure whether this novel was trying to take too much on or not, but there was certainly a whole range of things going on (so many that I wondered that it had to be set up like that – as in, I’d never expect a situation like this in real life). There’s Sam, with her Aspergers and OCD mom, and then there’s Zoe who is adopted with a severely intellectually disabled brother. Too many themes in one novel? Oh, and then add some true artistic skill and a queer angle just for good measure.

That being said, I liked this novel. Mainly because it had me ugly crying at one point, and it was JUST SO SAD. Sam, my heart broke with yours. Not as relate-able as perhaps Our Chemical Hearts or the dangerous art of blending in, but still good. If I had one teensy complaint, it would be that the ending left me feeling cold and empty. That’s what keeps me from giving this five stars, despite the emotional wreck that it left me in.

Walker Books | 1st July 2019 | AU$24.99 | paperback

Review: Kristen Hadeed – Permission to Screw Up (S)

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Permission to Screw Up
Kristen Hadeed

“This is the story of how Kristen Hadeed built Student Maid, a cleaning company where people are happy, loyal, productive, and empowered, even while they’re mopping floors and scrubbing toilets. It’s the story of how she went from being an almost comically inept leader to a sought-after CEO who teaches others how to lead.”

My wife listened to this book as an audiobook on long car rides, and I listened to some of it with her. This book was narrated to great effect by the author. This was amazing because although there was the standard business techniques that you get in any book, they were told as part of an enthralling story. It was told in such a way that the reader felt like they were there with Kristen, and wanted to know what would happen next. There were no bits where I was bored!

I felt like it was a longer than normal talking book that I would listen to, but it didn’t feel that long. [Rose notes that it clocks in at 5.5 hours(as opposed to Get to the Point, which was only two hours)]. I don’t normally like reading things twice, but there were some parts that I HAVE read again, such as the techniques of how to FBI (it’s a feedback technique).

Anyone in a leadership role, not just owning your own business (also middle manager, team leader etc) should read this book. There are business books out there that contradict themselves but this book tell you that even if others say that this is the ‘best way’, if it doesn’t suit your team, don’t push something that isn’t working.

The book by itself was 4 stars, but with the reading it’s 5 stars. The author helped. It sounded as if it wasn’t a book, it was a story. I’m not sure if the author had put in side notes that weren’t in the text, but it sounded like it. It felt like even when she ‘renamed’ characters, it was real in the story.

Some of the techniques that she uses and decided as really good should be highlighted more – like shit sandwiches, but FBI is better than that. They were explained equally, but more emphasis should be put on the FBI. The FBI method stands for: feelings, behavior, impact. It starts with saying how you feel, and then your feedback-ee can’t argue that and get off topic. What is the impact on the relationship, company, team, client etc? Feedback shouldn’t be an ordeal and a sit down session. Everyone in a team should be able to give FBI.

The take home message from this book is that team company culture is important and how to give feedback using the FBI method. Always keep trying different things, and if that isn’t working for you in those circumstances, try something else.

Review: Sarah Crossan – Toffee

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Toffee
Sarah Crossan

Allison has run from the burning, and has run so far that she’s no longer herself. She’s Toffee, and she lives with Marla. Marla isn’t herself either. Can Allison find her way back, or does she even want to?

This is the first time I have forced myself through a book of poems / short sentences. It looks like a thick, impressive book, but every page only has a couple of sentences on it. I found that while I connected with the characters, I just didn’t find it as immersive as a ‘regular’ book.

I really liked the way Allison and Marla interact. Allison’s character is so self-aware, and at the same time, so oblivious. Seeing inside her mind and having her own feelings and background exposed was really confronting and believable. I’ve never read any of Crossan’s other novels (and I probably won’t, if they are in poetry format), but I’d consider it from the strength of her characters.

There should be a trigger warning attached to this novel for domestic abuse and burn scars. I don’t think ‘mental health’ really covers dementia either. That being said, this novel is more than that. Friendship? Yes. Parenthood? Also yes. But in terms of closure and answers and completeness, it’s not satisfying. I need to know what happens to Allison’s dad and whether she survives.

I’m divided on whether this should be worth three or four stars. I feel like it was very good, because I got into the story, and I loved Allison and Marla. But then again, I felt cheated by the format and while the ending was good, it wasn’t quite enough. Read it, and let me know what you think.

Bloomsbury | 17th June 2019 | AU$14.99 | paperback