Tag Archives: 5-stars

Review: Claire Hennessy – Nothing Tastes as Good

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Nothing Tastes as Good
Claire Hennessy

Annabel didn’t know what to expect when she dies, but it wasn’t coming back to fix another girl’s life. Julia is fat and initially that’s all Annabel can see to fix. Slowly Julia teaches Annabel about other things in life, while Annabel helps Julia in her own ghostly helper way.

28101625I really like how the story develops with only hints of Annabel’s problems. It keeps the reader interested, and then invested in both of the characters. Julia too takes some time to get used to, and most of the time I found myself sympathising with her and wishing that she had more guts!

Gavin is actually surprising bright in picking up clues. He’s slow (a bit like all teenage boys it seems), but Julia is pretty good at hiding things.The theme that comes through is the importance of having friends, real friends, to help you survive the most stressful periods of your life. 

There is a lot of negative body shaming here, but at the same time it is balanced out by what Annabel can see going on in other’s heads. There’s also the sensitive references to rape, or potential rape. Approach with caution if you are easily triggered, but enjoy anyway because of the ending.

I’m going to take a leap here, and give it 5 stars. I have a feeling that I’m going to want to read it again when I want something with a complicated ending and complicated real feelings that have conclusions.

5star

 Bonnier | August 2016 | AU $19.99 | Paperback

Review: Iris Johansen & Roy Johansen – The Naked Eye

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The Naked Eye
Iris Johansen & Roy Johansen

Colby should be safely dead, but Kendra can’t shake the conviction that the guesome serial killer is just biding his time hidden somewhere. Drawn to murder scene after murder scene, it seems like Kendra might be too close this time to avoid being pulled into the scandal surrounding her work. How can she protect everyone?

23014581Kendra! I love you! I love you every time I read you. You’re plucky, irritating, and yet becoming more human all the time. I do wish you weren’t so stubborn, you should know that your friends will go first, but ah well. Everyone has their blind spots right? [How punny!]

The novel is going to catch you, pull you in, and keep you reading all night long. Or all work day long if you are guilty old me. The plot introduces a couple more characters of direct interest to the reader  so you don’t get too bored with her rather uptight point of view.

Ooh, that ending! I can’t even begin to imagine what the next and final novel is going to be like. The first three have been linked (Close Your Eyes, Sight Unseen) but the next one has got to have something new in it…

Even just in returning to the first page to check the publication date lead me to want to reread the first chapter. Guilty confession here, I did reread that little bit. Just so I could love her again. So this will be 5 stars, and maybe I should go back and re-star the others…

5star

Macmillan Australia | September 2016 | $9.99 AU | ebook

Review: Josephine Angelini – Firewalker

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Firewalker
Witches Do Not Die Quietly
Josephine Angelini

Lily survived fueling her army but is left covered with burns back in her own world with only one mechanic to save her. Good thing that mechanic is Rowan, and he knows how to deal with her not-so-crazy-after-all mother and her supportive sister. When others in her original world are drawn to her for her power, Lily must make a very difficult decision to save her own life and theirs.

25394030Lily is very… cold. I found it difficult to empathise with her because she seemed unchanged by deaths she had caused. Is it simply a side effect of being a witch? Or is it something else about her character that makes her too much like Lillian. They are the same person after all. I don’t think it was all about Lillian manipulating Lily, much as Rowan wanted to blame her.

Carrick, you are wonderfully twisted and I could have heard more from you. Maybe I’m slowly becoming a convert to multiple points of view in a novel… No, not really. It’s just that I needed more than just what I got from Lily to see what the ‘bad guys’ were doing.

I wished that Samantha had been able to find another Rowan in her own world. I wanted to know what had gone on there. Additionally, I wanted to know what had happened to Juliet and Samantha in the old-world. I can’t say too much here without giving away the novel, but you will understand once you read it yourself (I highly recommend it).

Gobble gobble. I couldn’t read this fast enough. And when I finished it, I really regretted reading these two novels without the third and final novel in the trilogy being published! I need it! I can’t wait for it to come and seal up all those odd occurrences for me. 5 stars from me.

5star

Pan Macmillan | 8 September 2015 | AU $16.99 | Paperback

Review: Isobelle Carmody – Scatterlings

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Scatterlings
Isobelle Carmody

Merlin wakes with no personal memory of who she is, just a jumble of memories that point to a world that seems long gone. A journey that should seem simple enough in order to find answers turns out to be fraught with dangers that have not yet been explored by anyone.

25956231There is no feeling of Merlin as a character as she begins simply as a construction of impersonal memories. The novel is plot based, and moves at a relatively fast pace once Merlin encounters other inhabitants of the desolate world. As long as you read this lightly without too many preconceived notions of how an apocalyptic novel should go, you will enjoy it.

Perhaps oddly, the female character on the front of the novel reminds me of Isobelle herself. It’s the free-flowing red hair and the slightly otherworldly skin. I also take issue with the male character that is Ford who should by rights be missing an eye.

Again and again in Carmody’s fiction we see her preoccupation with the many ways humans can destroy the earth. In Obernewtyn, we see what could happen after a complete nuclear disaster. In Alyzon Whitestarr, a sickness rises and contaminates people to create hatred. Here is the outcome of

Other reviewers have ripped this novel apart for simply reusing apocalyptic world atrocities and not bothering to make sense of the characters. They seem to forget that this is a relatively early novel and it is now more than 20 years old. I’d have to say it would have been a ground breaker novel in its time. People continue to put their heads in the sand about Global Warming and the mess that humanity will never be able to extract itself from.

I owned this novel for many years without reading it. After meeting Isobelle Carmody twice in the space of a month, I got this novel signed. Then it came to rest on my direct to-be-read pile as a personal choice novel. I feel strongly about all Isobelle Carmody books in giving them positive 5 star reviews. This one is no exception.

5star

Review: Josephine Angelini – Trial by Fire

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Trial by Fire
I Am A Witch and Witches Burn
Josephine Angelini

Lily suffers in her own world because she is allergic to things that no doctor can determine. After a party goes wrong, Lily finds herself literally in a whole different world, fighting for her own life in a different way.

26064760To an extent I felt like I didn’t know Lily, despite having things from her perspective the whole time. She is a crucible I suppose, so being empty is part of it. I did feel like her character progressed though. Rowan on the other hand felt very static, although his attitude to Lily changed. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

This novel is going to keep you off balance the whole time. Lily is never sure what she is doing, and so the reader doesn’t ever get the big picture either. At the same time though, you know that there will be some sort of major confrontation.

Don’t let this title mislead you. It’s referring to the Salem witch trials, which don’t play a major role in the actual timeline of the novel, but were important in the past. Although basically everything could have been important in the past because of the multiple timelines.

Thank goodness I had the next novel in the trilogy waiting for me to read it. There are so many lovely loose ends that need to be cleared up! Yes, the novel circles back and you could consider it finished, but there are so many things still to be discovered.

4 stars from me. I read it breathlessly and couldn’t put it down.

4star

Pan Macmillan | 10 November 2015 | AU $16.99 | Paperback

Review: Randa Abdel-Fattah – When Michael met Mina

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When Michael met Mina
Randa Abdel-Fattah

The first time Michael sees Mina, they’re on opposing sides of a march against refugees coming into Australia. The second time, they’re in class together, and Mina is using her strong wit in defence of herself and her people.

29753111Considering that there are some situations that could potentially be huge, the writing is sensitive, nuanced, and realistic. It’s just as good as, and perhaps better than, this author’s other novels (I have reviewed 10 Things I Hate About Me).

I love the depiction of Michael and his parents. Things that would have blown up out of proportion in some other fictional families were simply dealt with here. It’s a novel of middle-ground, and realising what it is you stand for.

This is where what people look like doesn’t even enter into the readers head. I couldn’t have cared less what the two protagonists looked like, I wanted to know about everything that was going on inside their head.

Early into reading this novel, I took note of the cute little way that the headings within the book telling you which character was speaking matched the ones on the front cover. So cute! So teenage appropriate! Something to get those reluctant teenage readers in and caring about good things.

The more I think about this novel, the more convinced I am of its awesomeness. I’m not going to reread it, but I think it’s fantastic enough to deserve 5 stars anyway.

5star

Review: AJ Conway – Skyquakers

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Skyquakers
AJ Conway

Saved by hiding in the fridge, Ned treks across the Australian desert to find other survivors. Beset by rage against the Skyquakers, he can only continue on in the hope he can make a difference.

29451283What might be a fruitless task is explored sensitively and in a reckless pace that makes you want to keep reading. It’s like the aftermath of a train wreck where you think the worst has happened, but then more things keep popping up.

This is set in Australia in a highly realised world that resonates with the reader. If you haven’t been to Australia, this novel is going to make you think that there is nothing here! Which is sort of true. It’s what was missing from In the Eyes of a Monster.

AJ Conway is a science PhD student like myself, and that shows through. The science in this is really well thought out, which I appreciated. Real science that gets the regular reader to think. Remember, humans are animals too (something I laugh about every time I see makeup that is ‘Not Tested on Animals’).

Oh yes, that’s the sort of ending I desire from this author. Unfinished questions? Surprise ending that the reader probably hasn’t thought of? Yes! You’ll remember that I was really keen on her first novel My Nova, and I had my comment on the dust jacket of The Treaty.

5 stars from me. It took me far too long to pick up this novel, but I certainly didn’t regret reading it in one sitting once I had started.

5star

Review: Hollie Overton – Baby doll

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Baby doll
Hollie Overton

Lily was stolen away from her life at age 16. 2 years later, she gave birth to a baby girl in captivity and named her in honour of the biggest thing she missed – the sky. Now her captor has left the door open, and she is free – to flee, but not necessarily safe yet.

26889278Here the multiple perspectives worked quite well, but not flawlessly. I could have done without some in favour of some more from Lily’s captor. I imagine that he would have been the hardest character to write, as he needed to be realistic and yet creepily absent at the same time. He reminded me of Breaking Butterflies.

The abuse scenes aren’t that bad, per se, but still will be triggering for someone who may have been in an abusive relationship. The manipulative lying, the barren comments, all of it is horrifying with the knowledge that in real life, people do this, and not all of them are caught.

I’m feeling a bit weak in my heart at the moment, so I didn’t want anything too scary. I haven’t read ‘Fear is the Rider’ yet because I’ve been terrified of it! This was fine, even though I worried that there wouldn’t be a ‘happy ending’. I think the ending was more realistic than anything else. I wish you luck Abby and Lily, getting your lives back.

Oh my goodness. This was haunting. I couldn’t put it down. I HAD to keep reading. For that reason, I’ll forgive some other ills and give it 4 stars.

4star

Review: Danielle Rollins – Burning

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Burning
Danielle Rollins

Angela has served her time in Brunesfield Correctional Facility and is due for release in three months. When a new girl arrives and strange things start happening, Angela’s release might be in question unless she does exactly what the new Director wants her to do.

27280428This novel is basically built on the idea that monsters are more interesting than heroes. Isn’t that true? Monsters always get to have more fun! I’m not sure that’s exactly true for the entirety of the novel, but true feelings come out towards the end.

You’re going to want to pick up this novel for its very attractive cover which hints at the story to come, and then keep reading because its really fantastic and the plot keeps turning over quickly. There isn’t a moment to get bored or doubt yourself. You just have to keep reading!

The characters in this were neatly filled out, but at the same time I could have known more about them. I was interested in the crimes committed by each of Angela’s friends, and Angela herself, and I felt like I never got full answers.

I want to see a sequel for this. At the same time, I was perfectly happy with the very surprising ending! I now couldn’t picture it ending any other way. 5 stars from me. Go pick it up right now!

5star
Bloomsbury | July 2016 | AU$17.99 | Paperback

Review: Sophie Hardcastle – Breathing Under Water

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Breathing Under Water
Sophie Hardcastle

The twinship Grace and Ben share means that they have always had each other, yet Grace stands in the shadow of her brother’s glory – both on the surf and away from the beach. Grace’s life will be tipped on its head, and there will be more things to think about than simply kissing the cute boy who has returned to her life.

30151298This book greeted me on my front doorstep, and I responded by reading it straight away despite my current efforts to catch up on reading novels again. Boy was it worth it.

What I loved about this novel was that it didn’t give away all the plot in the blurb. Things still had to happen! In fact, having thought about what this author had written about previously (her experiences with Bipolar I in her memoir Running like China) I completely misled myself!

You would think that I would have hated the prose of the novel, particularly the way it led in in quite a poetic way. But instead, I found myself skimming over the top, buoyed by the characters’ personalities and beach scenes. And I don’t even like the beach, and usually Australian novels are just not that fantastic from my perspective (Tim Winton comes to mind)!

The poignancy of Grace and Jake falling apart and the way other people react when big things change are tangible for the reader. It does include sex and drug scenes, gritty and painful and not in a good light. I loved the way Harley behaved believably and so much more sensibly than many other boys in other novels. Hardcastle pushed boundaries and got away with it.

This novel is one I think I’m going to read again and again. I held my breath while I was reading it, and I couldn’t put it down. 5 stars from me. Go and buy yourself a copy, and prepare to hold back tears. I can’t wait to read another of this author’s novels when they come.

5star

Quercus Children’s Books / Hachette | June 2016 | AU$26.99 | Paperback