Tag Archives: 3-stars

Review: Elizabeth Gilbert – City of Girls

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City of Girls
Elizabeth Gilbert

Vivian Morris is writing a letter to a woman who’s father she spent time with following the war. This letter and novel tells the story of her life and how it all leads up to her sexual and business freedom.

I didn’t feel very strongly about this novel. It all pretty much boiled down to ‘it was all a dream’. Not exactly, but that was the feeling I had – in that everything that had happened before actually didn’t have any impact or was anything that mattered. I knew she would survive everything thrown her way, and that she’d end up being happy regardless of the challenges.

I get that for its time, the protagonist is a daring and unusual heroine who is a paragon of sexual freedom. But the novel isn’t set up for me to actually enjoy her story. Vivian (even the name suggests she enjoys life) doesn’t endear herself to me at all and I never connected with her little asides about how she didn’t know anything at the time, but oh, looking back she was amazed at her naivety.

This is billed as a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Unique, yes, thrilling and enthralling, no. 3 stars, and maybe a different audience would be more suitable to read this (someone keen on the 1940s and the war times?).

Bloomsbury | 4th June 2019 | AU$32.99 | paperback

Review: Sarah Hopkins – The Subjects

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The Subjects
Sarah Hopkins

Daniel is a teenage drug dealer on his way to jail. But suddenly he is granted a reprieve – he is taken to a facility purpose built to treat people like him. When he enters into The Contract with Dr. J and starts taking classes with the enigmatic Helen and smart PW Daniel’s emotional thresholds are going to change. But the story is narrated by the older and more worldly Daniel who knows just how things will play out.

I requested this novel because it reminded me of another that I had read with a similar concept – delinquents taken to a bush setting and let loose to sort themselves out. But this novel is nothing like that. Daniel is guided without having known he was guided, and treated without having really known what was wrong. His search for a descriptor of what is wrong with him seems futile when his friendships are changing him.

I loved how the author was able to get inside the teenage boy mind and draw out a painful expose of what growing up looks like, without having to rely on the traditional narrative of high school and families. By putting her ‘vulnerable’ characters in a courtyard with pear trees Hopkins makes the characters, not the setting, the core of the story. We know that the teenagers must be some sort of program, but we don’t work out until the very end what it actually means. The author really crafted this carefully until the ending just sprang on me.

Over-prescription of medication, and diagnosing young children with mood and mental disorders is a growing problem. Ritalin seems to be the magic bullet against children who can’t sit still. Instead of talking about the problem we can throw drugs at it to fix it. As someone who takes daily medication to keep myself sane and sociable, I fully admit that psychoactive drugs have their places in society. But I agree with this novel’s ultimate offering in that we should be careful who we trust to do the right thing (and who benefits from it financially).

I can’t recommend this novel, but I’m not sure why not. This novel left me with a very strange feeling in my mouth. In fact, it reminded me a lot of ‘Some Tests’, a novel I never finished reviewing because it was too weird to even keep reading. I’m trying to think of who might enjoy this novel, as I’m certain that someone, somewhere would enjoy it. It is quite brilliantly written, even if the style didn’t suit me.

Text Publishing | 4th June 2019 | AU$29.99 | paperback

Review: Kesia Lupo – We are Blood and Thunder

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We are Blood and Thunder
Kesia Lupo

Lena is desperate to escape her life as a cryptling serving the Duke’s Forest Ancestors – but instead finds herself needing to escape to survive after she is branded as a mage. Constance is a mage trying to find her way back into the Forest after her flight many years ago. Both of them are somehow connected to the storm that is slowly killing the Duke’s people, but can they realise this in time to save anyone?

You won’t see the twists coming in this novel. I feel like even mentioning that there is a twist might give things away.  In addition, I liked the idea that magic could be aided or changed by adding clockwork elements, and I think more could have been done with this.

I didn’t get a sense of how large the world was. It seemed absurd to me that Duke’s Forest could be a walk away from the King. I didn’t even see the King and it seemed like this important figure was just invisible behind the potential Radicals. So some important things also seemed inconsistent – the change in Constance’s magic. I thought it was purple? And then it turned out to be white.

What I couldn’t believe, and what spoiled the book for me, was the romance aspect. The relationships that develop seem to be fragile and tenuous from the way that the characters spoke, but then their actions said that there were some strong feelings going on.

I could have seen more about the various religious/God sects which I thought were introduced but not properly discussed. Perhaps this will be explored in the not-a-sequel set in the same world. 3 stars for this one due to the disappointing characters, but I expect to see more good things from this author.

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

Review: KH Canobi – Mindcull

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MindCull
KH Canobi

Eila is short-listed in a Virtual Reality competition to become the Face of Pearl. All she needs to do is go to a luxurious English getaway and enjoy sessions in fully immersive VR SkinSuit technology. After being kidnapped and forced to spy for the law, Eila has to decide who are the right people to trust, and who to save.

I really liked the concept and entry to this novel – VR being used to camouflage the ugly and dead real world, and yet Eila still being pulled back by the simple method of someone chasing her! However even though this novel was fast-paced, or perhaps because of it, there were too many loose ends for me to feel properly satisfied.

I was strangely disappointed in this novel. Eila should come across as a plucky heroine, but instead she seems to be bowled over by Hugo’s charm and seems quite whiny.  Everyone was just a little too understanding and ‘cool’ about absolutely everything. I think the author attempted too many twists, and thus there were too many just ‘coincidences’. We never get to the bottom of why Elia’s parents don’t seem to exist anymore. Or whether the therapy for Discordants works or not. I’d say it was being left open for a sequel to answer these questions, but I can’t see anywhere else for the admittedly shallow plot to go.

If you’re thinking of Ford Street as a forward-thinking and innovative thinking publishing house, you’d be right. That’s one of the reasons I was not surprised to see that they had taken on this novel. They’re also the most recent publishers of Alyzon Whitestarr by the wonderful Isobelle Carmody. However this novel’s a miss – I’m giving it 3 stars and directing you to go read Ready Player One instead.

Ford Street | 1st June 2019 | AU$19.95 | paperback

Review: Timothy Jay Smith – The Fourth Courier

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The Fourth Courier
Timothy Jay Smith

The Fourth Courier brings together a straight white FBI agent and gay black CIA officer as they team up to uncover a gruesome plot involving murder, radioactive contraband, narcissistic government leaders, and unconscionable greed in 1992 Warsaw, Poland.

This is a very. serious. novel. Literature people, literature. Which I can enjoy and appreciate some of the time – Witchcraft Couture for example. But this novel? I ploughed through this novel, and I didn’t really come up for air. I didn’t really enjoy it, even if I appreciated some aspects of it.

The real world grittiness of this novel was deeply atmospheric and I felt as if I was standing on the banks of the frozen dirty river watching the dead men examined by their killers. I walked the streets of Warsaw with Porter  and sat in the bar with Mladic. And in fact, I could have done without Mladic’s sex scenes which seemed to me vaguely gratuitous and certainly misogynistic and awkward to read.

What I think could have improved this novel were less perspectives. Jay felt like the main character and the person that the reader should be rooting for. So it would have been ok in my opinion to simply narrow it to his and Crawford’s perspective. Because adding all the others meant that I didn’t feel as much suspense as I might have. It’s not really a mystery when you can already tell who the bad guys are.

For quite some time I didn’t realise why it was important that Crawford was gay. It was a major selling point from the author for me to review it and from the blurb it seemed like he would be a major player. Instead while it was important for ONE crucial plot point, the rest of the time it was just a thing that I kept thinking was important.

Aleks was certainly able to give up heroin very quickly. And the ending was really quite questionable. What will happen in the future? What about that coat check?

I’m giving this 3 stars, but I think for the right audience it could be right up there in a 4-5 star range. I received a copy of this novel directly from its author (who I also interviewed here).

Review: PM Freestone – Shadowscent: The Darkest Bloom

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Shadowscent: The Darkest Bloom
PM Freestone

Rakel’s father is dying of the Rot, and Rakel knows there is only one way to save him – to use her sensitive sense of smell to gain a position as a perfumer. Instead she finds herself tricked and serving in the one place she cares nothing for – and suddenly faced with accusations of poisoning the crown prince. The only person who might be on her side has his own dark thoughts and wounds to hide…

While I initially thought that the magic was scent-based in the end it ended up being part of every place in society. I could easily accept that scents could do wonderful things and I could see the real-world basis of the author’s thoughts (people with memory loss can remember more things when they smell familiar scents, HIV/the Rot can’t be caught just by breathing the same air).

This is a ‘quest’ novel so don’t go looking for any character development. Rakel remains her impulsive self, and Ash remains elusive. I’d align it as being a newer ‘Deltora Quest’ – instead of pipe parts and jewels they are looking for scents.  Others have commented that they don’t want Rakel and Ash falling in love – and I can reassure you that that doesn’t SEEM to happen in this novel.

I would have been more than satisfied for this novel to be a stand-alone. And right up until the final chapter, it seemed like it was! Some elements hinted that there could be more, but it wasn’t guaranteed. Basically I felt cheated. I wanted to just sit down and enjoy a novel without having to hold its suspense in my head for a long time afterwards and chew it over for the next year!

Again, I am certain that I have read another novel with this premise, but for the life of me I can’t remember. I’m pretty sure the main character had the brilliant nose, but used it to both harm and heal. Does anyone remember?

I’ll tuck this neatly into teenage fiction and recommend it for reader who enjoy plot based stories that don’t require very much thought or expect very much of the reader. I’ll give it 4 stars to be generous. I’d read the other books in this series, but I’m not sure I would seek out the author’s other works.

Scholastic | 1st May 2019 | AU$16.99 | paperback

Review: Morgen Witzel – The Ethical Leader (S)

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The Ethical Leader
Morgen Witzel

“Ethical behaviour by businesses, or their staff, is often seen as the corporate and social responsibility icing on an organizational cake – something that is nice to do but never really essential. But by turning this view around – and making ethical behaviour a primary focus – Witzel shows how businesses can create and maintain long-term competitive advantage.”

In the first line the author warns the reader – “Oh, no. Not another book about ethics” – in a laughing way that this won’t be one of those books. But it kinda is just another book about ethics. It was very slow to start off with, and there was a point near the start where I wanted to abandon it, but then I pushed through and got to a better part later on.I read it when I knew I would be distracted because I could easily pick it up and drop it again – it didn’t require too much brain power.

A strong point of this book were the inclusion of some really nice case studies that are boxed clearly from the rest of the text. For some of the case studies, the author asks ‘What would you do?’ and then tells you at the end of the chapter what actually happened. Any time there is a fact, it uses a reference. Its worth could be as a reference book because it has A LOT of references that you can refer to (haha). It has both footnotes by chapter and a Bibliography. If you like an idea, it’s easy to go and find out more about it.

The real ethics framework is only the last chapter (Chapter 10), where he gives how to make an ethical decision – how to ask yourself if it is an ethical decision you are making. But in the end, different people have different ways and levels of ethics to adhere to. It’s great to read about, and it’s nice that you should do the right thing, but even with the framework there will never be a black and white question. You can ask the questions, but not reach an answer – it’s just your opinion.

I’d like more items to action out of it, such as how to implement this in your workplace. What can I do to improve my business? How do you look after your shareholders vs employees vs customers? There were no takeaways of what I can do to create value or build employee relationships. Ultimately I just didn’t enjoy it and got nothing useful out of it. It IS just another ethics book – it’s average.

Bloomsbury | 12th February 2019 | AU$35.00 | paperback

Review: Samantha Shannon – The Priory of the Orange Tree

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The Priory of the Orange Tree
Samantha Shannon

The Nameless One has been trapped for nearly 1000 years, but slowly its minions are being freed of their bonds and North/South/East/West are all threatened once again. What is it that is keeping the Nameless One at bay? Is it the unbroken line of Queens in Virtuedom or some magery performed in the past?

I was excited for this novel because I hadn’t read a good adult fantasy in quite a while and anything with dragons is bound to take my fancy. Sadly, the dragons (wyverns) were on the evil side of things most of the time, and the good dragon riders hardly figured in the picture with their dragons. It was inevitable that the Nameless One would be freed – everything was just a quibble about how long it would take and who would be responsible for its death.

I initially struggled to keep track of the characters because the perspectives swapped each chapter before I could really get settled into them. As I warmed up to the novel, I loved Ead for her plucky determination, and her patience. However, I felt no fear for the characters’ lives. Either I didn’t like them (Roos) or I knew they’d come out the end ok because they were too important to lose (Ead and Tane).

For me this is a prime airport / long travel read. There’s no frustration for not having the next book and it’s long enough to really get settled into. I’m only giving it 3 stars because the action was too slow, and in my opinion, very predictable. I’m not going to link to my embarrassing old review for Kushiel’s Dart, but that was an epic fantasy worthy of the title.

Bloomsbury | 26th February 2019 | AU$32.99 | paperback

Review: Hayley Barker – Show Stopper

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Show Stopper
Hayley Barker

Ben lives a Pure life guarded by security and filled with food and comfort. He never wants for anything – except to be allowed to see the Circus. Hoshiko is the tightrope walker of the circus – a Dreg not worthy of food and just waiting to be killed. When Ben saves Hoshiko from death they find themselves walking the tightrope together – can they both make it out from the deadly circus alive?

The blurb on this one is actually inaccurate. The Dregs living in poverty do not get the opportunity to sell their children – their children are just ripped away from them if they are ‘selected’. What I would have liked to see more of was the slums and how bad they actually are. Or, just Pure life and what it looks like normally. To me, this is just another dystopian future society with problems, there isn’t anything particularly neat about it. I found it hard to believe in the insta-love between Ben and Hoshiko. I also find it difficult to believe in the things that the 6 year old Greta can accomplish by herself. I get that she is really grownup from her terrible circumstances, but realistically she wouldn’t be able to grasp all of those concepts.

This is the age old theme of us vs them. We get the perspectives of both the Cat and Ben, the Dreg and the Pure. This will remind some readers of Red Queen or Tarnished City and similar novels. What this novel brings to the table is just simple horribleness without magic as an excuse. The author says that she was inspired by the opinions of the English against immigrants, and I have to say it’s one of the few issues that makes me really upset. Asylum seekers didn’t risk their lives on a rickety boat because life back home was good!

I warmed up to the characters and settled in, and I was mainly satisfied by the ending. I am not going to avidly hunt down the next novel in this duology though because I just didn’t feel strongly enough about anything. I’d rather reread Disruption. I put off reading Show Stopper for more than a !year! because it looked ok, but not fascinating. The blurb didn’t grab me. I’m giving this novel 3 stars.

Scholastic | 1st October 2017 | AU$16.99 | paperback

Review: Philippa Gregory – The Kingmaker’s Daughter

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The Kingmaker’s Daughter
Philippa Gregory

Anne Neville is the younger of two daughters of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick who was the most powerful magnate in 15th century England. While her older sister Isabel gets the first pick of the future Kings of England, Anne is left with the dregs. When will it be her turn to sit on the throne?

Anne’s an interesting alternative heroine mainly because her story has already been determined by history. It takes any anticipation out of the story and leaves us with Anne and her strong personality. For the time, the way she is written is as a superstitious but practical woman who is determined to live her life her way. Of course we can’t know what she was like in real life, but we’d like to hope that she wasn’t a completely passive observer of her life – and that she was lucky enough to get a bit of romance apart from her arranged marriages.

I picked this up as a light read while in the USA on vacation, but didn’t get around to reading it until I got home. I was bored one day and needed something to read that didn’t require too much concentration, and this fit the bill. Halfway through reading I admit that I Wiki-ed Anne Neville because I was too impatient to find out who she ended up marrying and whether her offspring survived. Children so often died in those times – especial Royal children thanks to their inbreeding. I love teaching the pedigree of Queen Victoria’s haemophilia for example (many men in the family died young thanks to her).

I’m not sure quite why I’ve bothered to review this novel because there are literally thousands of other reviews of this novel! Perhaps it is just for my own records and sanity. I’ve also read The Constant Princess and was similarly nonplussed. A quick read, don’t expect to be surprised if you know your history. 3 stars.