The Weight of a Thousand Feathers
Brain Conaghan
Bobby’s life is boring enough on the outside. Inside his house though he has a sick mother who is getting sicker every day, and a little brother who just can’t fit into society or life. When his mother asks him the ultimate question, Bobby feels that he must make a decision.
Bobby’s devotion to his mother is admirable, is is his devotion to his rather difficult little brother. However, a child should never be put into this position. I can’t believe that the professional carer for his mother is such a numskull. Or actually I can. Health professionals that aren’t nurses aren’t always as well trained as they could be.
The circle that Bobby starts going to is a good idea. But if such a problem has been acknowledged, shouldn’t someone be doing more about it? As with any teenage novel, there’s instalove that didn’t go anything for me either.
I’m giving this 1 or 2 stars. I didn’t finish this novel, but whether this was because I had other things to read or it was truly irredeemably terrible, your guess is as good as mine. There are plenty of other good Young Adult novels dealing with this topic in a more believable way.
Bloomsbury | 1st July 2018 | AU$16.99 | paperback
I really wish I hadn’t wasted my time on this novel. I started reading it once and then put it down. I was feeling like a fantasy novel so I picked it up again right from the beginning. More fool me. The action is surprisingly slow, and the main character Raven isn’t inherently likable. I liked Eighth, but his mind was so fragmented that I could barely follow along what it meant to be a Nahx.
This was an average novel with a meandering storyline that had me losing interest about half way through (and thus pausing to write this review). BB was a lovable, cuddly protagonist and it was certainly comforting to read a fat-positive novel for once. However, she IS unhealthily fat and I’m not sure I can give completely positive feedback to a novel that initially promotes it.
 Allen & Unwin | 23rd May 2018 | AU$19.99 | paperback
I hated the objectification of women in this novel, and the completely inappropriate language all of the boys used. The lovely Muslim girl goes to a party and gets hit on and followed home by people she’s turned down. I’m perfectly fine with her smoking pot, but where are her friends to help her out when she gets in trouble? The amount of drink and drugs going around was crazy. I’d love to know where this town is, and I wonder whether its real occupants actually behave in this deplorable way. Actually, this novel reminds me of Dream-something or other that was about another isolated idiot. I grew up isolated and so did my fiancee – and neither of us had these problems (she’s a first in family to College too).
I couldn’t get behind this novel. I attempted to read it twice and at least got in about a quarter of the way before giving up this time. While the opening chapter puts you a bit on the edge of your seat, you know that he survives it because he writes the rest of the novel! It goes downhilll from there as Simon’s narration becomes increasingly erratic and we are introduced to more and more characters. I got sick of the frequent, gratuitous swearing that did nothing to endear me to Simon.
It had the potential to be a thriller, but thanks to 
I’d like to know, even with Wanda’s magic, why Verity is up and about after such a traumatic birth pretty much 2 days later. Any baby that comes out in the space of an hour is going to rip some serious damage. Or maybe the time passed faster than I thought, which it might have because I had no sense of timing throughout the whole novel.
Ugh, I spent this novel reading it in a sort of daze of disbelief. To start with, I didn’t really connect with the main character, and the style of writing just didn’t take me into the novel. And then, funnily enough, the protagonist talks about reading a book with no discernable plot-line. This one was just the same!
The novel opens with a boy picking berries to sell. l made an instant connection with him – that I gradually lost as the novel progressed. The other protagonist, the drone pilot, I absolutely understood, but again, I didn’t care about him either. This novel overall felt flat to me, just like the 2D characters.