Tag Archives: 3-stars

Review: Christopher Mannino – School of Deaths

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School of Deaths: The Scythe
Christopher Mannino

Suzie always thought that a Grim Reaper was just a story tale, left over from the Middle Ages. When she finds herself wasting away in the human world, she doesn’t know what to do next. When she finds herself in the Land of Deaths she is determined to get home as soon as possible, but that soon changes.

21798470The blurb left me a bit wanting. It basically promised me more than it could offer. The concept was good, but the classes just didn’t live up to expectations. Actually, it reminded me a bit of Harry Potter, except that there wasn’t any real bad guys. Just distant dragons, and the fact that ‘Mentals were treated badly.

Suzie is not particularly bright, as far as I can tell. She frustrated me with her naivety and inability to deal with people. And the romance that eventually happened? Sigh. I just couldn’t love it. I wasn’t convinced. Maybe because her character sometimes came across as very young, and sometimes came across as a teenager.

A million years is a long time… And something about that says to me that Deaths shouldn’t just ferry human souls. We’ve been around as ‘humans’ for around 6 million years. But I suppose the whole concept of this novel steps away from what is possible, so that should be ok…

I didn’t understand the motivations of many characters. In fact, I didn’t understand the big deal about there being a female Death, except that apparently all female Deaths are bad! Or maybe it is just adapting to it. Seriously guys, get over it. I know you aren’t all from the 21st century, but surely you aren’t all bastards?

I read this in one sitting. I always find that ebooks leave me unhappy and not feeling like I’ve really read something with substance. As interesting as the concept of this novel was, I just didn’t feel like it was executed well enough for me to give 4 stars. 3 stars from me. I have hopes for the sequel, but I’m not sure I’ll be volunteering to read it.

3star

I received this novel as part of a tour.

 

Review: E.K. Johnston – A Thousand Nights

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E.K. Johnston
A Thousand Nights

A desert girl gives up her life to save her sister, promising herself in marriage to Lo-Melkhiin, who had killed 300 girls on their marriage night. Instead, she tells stories every night, and continues to survive despite the odds. When she discovers she can see magic, and that Lo-Melkhiin might not be who he seems, she is even more determined to save the man she thinks she might love.24820300

This novel felt quite shallow, but at the same time it was a really enjoyable retelling of a fable. If you were looking for something new and exciting, I’m afraid this wasn’t it. But in its style, it was good. Far better than Book of a Thousand Nights, which I was disgusted with.

Magic. It makes fantasy worlds work, and in this one the author has effortlessly used it to change the story and make it more interesting. It is not just her storytelling ability that saves her, it is her strength of will. In fact, I don’t even remember her name, but I can remember the way it felt to be inside her head.

The idea that magic can push talents forward, yet also warp them is an interesting one. I’d love to see more of this discussed, perhaps in a separate story. The world-building in this one made me want to read more. The detail to the costumes, all of it came through as a properly interesting and realistic Arabian novel.

How many stars do I want to give this? Maybe 3. It’s hard to decide. It wasn’t as gripping as I might have desired, but I did keep reading it.

3star

Thanks to the lovely folks at Macmillan Children’s Books who gave me a proof copy to read.

Review: Alice Pung – Laurinda

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Laurinda
Alice Pung

Linh Lucy Lam has never seen herself as a bright scholar, but she persists in trying to please her parents. After ‘beating’ the local Asian genius to get a place at a private high school, Lucy finds herself being torn apart by who she think she is, and who she might become.

22603951I listened to this as a talking book, and I have to say the reader was pretty amazing! Even my partner enjoyed listening to it. That being said though, that was what kept me listening, not the story itself. What was the point of this novel? Why would I care about Lucy? I cared about her little brother Lamb-ey more than anything else.

What I didn’t understand for the majority of the novel was who ‘Linh’ that Lucy was writing to was. I think, and I may be wrong, is that Linh is Lucy, but her true Asian (somewhat bogan) self. I couldn’t understand why Linh would leave if she was a real person. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

Lucy is super self-aware, and she’s aware of how stupid adults are. We see through her eyes what rich people are like – the question is whether this really how they are? I don’t know enough private schools to tell you. Bullying at high schools is normal, there’s even bullying of teachers, although perhaps not as dramatic as a tampon to the forehead… I certainly remember our public high school class evicting one poor teacher who we viewed as incompetent.

I don’t think I was satisfied by the ending. Yes Lucy managed to overcome things and become more of herself, but I wasn’t enthralled with her ‘amazing’ speech at the end. It all seemed too neat. Neat. Yes. That’s what this novel was in a nut shell. For all that it was exposing and trying to highlight the interesting nuances of multicultural Australia, it sometimes seemed to dig itself too deep a hole – then just fill it in with one well-placed sentence.

I’ll be giving this 3 stars. There are better novels out there, but if you want something easy to listen to that doesn’t require any thinking (or a light teenage novel), this one could fit the bill.

3star

Review: Garth Nix – Newt’s Emerald

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Newt’s Emerald
Garth Nix

The family emerald has been stolen, and Lady Truthful’s best friends have been implicated. Lady Truthful sets out on a quest to find it, and in the mean time, perhaps find someone to steal her heart.

24737347I expected more from Garth Nix. This is too light a novel, with a protagonist who seemed weak and unlikeable. Lady Truthful is a sucker. She’s naive, and doesn’t even make an attempt to hide that. Her aunt isn’t much better. The whole thing left me wanting. Just for substance, for anything.

Ugh. This is a romance, an unconvincing girl-to-boy in disguise novel. Masquerade ball? Overdone and typical for the enemy to appear at that time. Enemy disguised as someone you trust? Tick. Being exposed as a woman in front of a shipload of men? Tick. Believe me, I’m not giving anything away here. You’ll see it coming from a mile away.

I know I should make some more comments on the structure of the novel, the world-building, the character development. Honestly though, I just can’t find enough to like about it to make those informed comments. I shouldn’t need to talk about them, the book should be speaking for itself.

I give this 3 begrudging stars. If I didn’t already know the work of Garth Nix, then it would be 3. I am tempted to give it less, but that’s just because I know his work can be so so much better.3star

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a complimentary review copy.

Review: Richard Gardner – Righteous Release

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Richard Gardner
Righteous Release

David Chambers is part of a religious sect – one that is so closed minded that eating with non-followers is anathema, and planning your own life is secondary to helping the others of your church. When he finds himself engaged to a woman he can never love, he decides to head into the wild world and try his luck there.

25042667I confess: I read this novel, and didn’t know how I felt about it. So I just kept putting off my review, and putting it off, and then, damn. I seem to have forgotten most of the points I had thought of about why I liked it, and yet couldn’t give it any less than about 3 stars.

The ending, the ending! Arg! Perhaps the ending is what left me feeling so confused about this novel. I didn’t understand how his loyalties could shift so rapidly. As shallow as it may sound, it was only a woman!

And his friend Rachael? I couldn’t understand how she could settle for it. Perhaps for her (despite seeming to have a questioning mind which to me meant that she would never be happy in such an enclosed environment), having children and a secure life was the most important thing. Which to me, would never be good enough. I need something more in life (but we all know that I think differently to other folks).

The balancing act between the characters and the intertwined plots could have been used to more effect. I found some of the writing clunky and difficult to read, and it did interfere with my enjoyment of the novel (and my ability to read it in a single sitting – I read it over a couple of weeks, interspersed with other novels). For a debut novel though, taking in such a broad and contentious topic, it was fantastic.

I think I’d recommend this novel to read, but only if you can suspend your disbelief that some people can be so damn stupid!

 

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Review: Josef – Fifty Shades of Truth

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Fifty Shades of Truth
Josef

Josef is drawn to the more unusual sides of sex work. He likes to be dominated and dominating, he experiments with all things. This novel is 18+. Continue reading →

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: 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