Tag Archives: 5-stars

Review: Karelia Stetz-Waters – The Purveyor

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The Purveyor
Karelia Stetz-Waters

Helen and Wilson have been forcibly separated in the wake of The Admirer‘s thrilling conclusion. As Wilson suffers from a disorder with no cure, Helen finds herself increasingly lost and uncomfortable, not knowing why Wilson is not returning to her college.

23120239This novel is just as entrancing as the first novel. It is written more from Wilson’s perspective which is a refreshing change after Helen’s insecure narration in the first novel. At the same time, it is obvious that Wilson suffers from the same insecurities. I felt frustrated that they weren’t communicating well, because surely they should have gotten over it in the first novel? But that is what makes this novel more life-like and less like a fiction.

That being said, the things that go wrong that are really random things that get wrong. How likely is it that these things would happen in real life? The whole hierarchy in Wilson’s family seems off, but then again, these atrocities to occur in modern life, and what better way to expose it than in a novel? Her family is seriously interbred and messy, made more so by the questionable sexualities of its members. I wonder how much of this actually goes on…

I had such differing levels of disgust and horror and discomfort all about one person, but I didn’t know that they were someone else until it was too late! I didn’t feel tricked, instead I felt like I’d had an actual expose go on, just like Wilson feels. It’s a clever technique that Karelia uses with expertise in both of her ‘Wilson and Helen’ novels.

I couldn’t make the final connection for what happened to the girls. They’re basically surrounded by myth the whole time. They’re completely legendary, and remain that way. I’d love to hear more from them. I want to know whether they are both happy, whether they decide to study more, and what the collector wanted from them (if it wasn’t sex or religious purposes).

Once again I was left feeling like I’d been walking along hot coals and found myself loving them so much that it felt more painful when it ended. I was pushed along by how things were interconnected and messy and yet not obvious all at the same time. Love, love, loved this novel. Not only did I connect with the characters, the plot didn’t miss a beat and kept moving forward with no inconsistencies.

When I interviewed Karelia, she mentioned that many people seem uncomfortable with the sex scenes in her novels. I think that the majority of them are tastefully done, and actually offer insight into the characters. That is particularly the case in this novel. It’s certainly not a gratuitous pledge to her readers.

I bought this novel for myself after reading Karelia’s other novels, The Admirer, Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before and Something True. Let that be a mark to you that I now proudly own all these novels after buying them with my own cash, and would confidently promote them to everyone.

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Review: Brandon Sanderson – Steelheart

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Steelheart
Brandon Sanderson

David has been hunting Epics his whole life. Well, not all of them. But enough of them that he can classify them, and knows how to take them down. But there’s only one he wants to take down. And that’s Steelheart, who killed his father. Somewhere in David’s mind is the clue to take him down. He can’t do it on his own though…

17182126Metaphors in a world gone mad. I think that setting up difficult ones is just as hard as setting up good ones! I can’t decide whether it’s overkill, or just adding depth to David’s character. I guess it shows his out-of-contact social skills from living alone for too many years.

Sanderson always picks an interesting idea, and moves away from it in an odd direction. Take a concept that you think you understand, then turn it upside down. Too many times are there heroes and villains as super-people. Sometimes the balance is out. And what happens when they’re always mad and grumpy? Normal humans don’t have a chance.

I would have liked to see a bit more variety in the perspectives offered. David offers a pretty narrow world view to see the whole novel through. But it would have ruined some of the surprises because each person has their own secrets that the hold that are both their own and for others.

Something I love so much about this novel, and others, is that the person you might empathise with the most might turn out to be someone different or die on you! His twists and deaths are real deaths – people stay dead. Not like some series I can mention… *Game of Thrones* cough cough.

Oh Sanderson. You’ve done it again. I felt so shattered by the ending, and it wasn’t what I expected at all, so it was totally awesome. I can’t possibly recommend this novel enough. I’ve loved his work since much earlier, since borrowing novels while I was overseas on vacation (I now own them, not that they are out of their pristine plastic wrap).

I forgot to say thank you to my amazing girlfriend for surprising me with this novel! I have the bestest girlfriend ever.

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Review: Sarah Vincent – The Testament of Vida Tremayne

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The Testament of Vida Tremayne
Sarah Vincent

Vida has become trapped in her own mind, while Dory is trapped in the suburbia of her job. When Dory comes to clear out her mother’s house, in preparation of Vida never recovering, she finds a house-guest who witnessed Vida’s demise – but the truth is to be found in a series of journals.

23583770The novel starts out with Dory’s perspective, and you feel yourself thrust into her busy mindset. Dory is a woman who knows her own mind, and is determined to succeed in all of the ways her mother failed. The other chapters are excerpts from Vida’s journals, exposing both Dory’s childhood and Vida’s decline.

Honestly, it took me a while to write this review. This was a novel I needed to think deeply about and prod myself to dig into it. Initially I struggled to get into this novel. The prose put me a little bit off balance, and then, about 20 pages in, I suddenly got hooked. By about half-way through the novel, I couldn’t put it down, and spent time thinking about it while I wasn’t touching that gorgeous cover.

Vida. Dory. Vida. Dory. Rhiannon. They were all brilliantly characterised and had very separate voices. I never felt confused as to who was speaking. I was unfamiliar with the countryside, and the external world-building was good, but oh my, the characters were just so good.

I wanted to talk about this book having finished reading it, almost to anyone who would listen. I doubted my own reading of it. I wondered if I had missed something. Somewhere, the lines of fiction and fantasy get blurred, and I couldn’t tell where that point happened. Arg! How could that happen! The action drove me to keep reading, and perhaps I missed some of the nuances. Or maybe, just maybe, the author tricked me into thinking I should know more, but leaving me wanting more instead. Either way, really compulsive reading.

The ending was haunting. Especially as it wasn’t clear what was actually wrong with ‘the monster’ or what had happened to ‘the animal’.

It’s a definite re-read for me. And I have a family member in mind who would absolutely LOVE to get her hands on this kind of novel, so I might offer it to her for a read.

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Review: Jessica Shirvington – Corruption

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Corruption
Jessica Shirvington

Maggie Stevens has lost track of time. It’s easy to do that when you have been shut in the dark with limited food and absolutely no light. Wasted away, and pining for someone that Maggie believes she has irrevocably harmed, Maggie still tries to keep her fitness up for the first chance of escape.

19035609I remember finishing the first book in this duology last year, and feeling incredibly pained at its ending. How could that happen? What chances are there for the next time? Will there be a next time? Of course there had to be another chance, otherwise Maggie would be good and gone forever!

This novel has just as many amazing cliff-hangers and scary parts as Disruption. Gods! I felt myself pulled every which way, and I wanted to keep listening and listening and listening to it. As a talking book, the narrator was excellent at captivating her audience and I felt a particular connection with Gus. Gus, I love you!

Let me say something here. Maggie inspires a loyalty that is quite frightening. It’s not surprising that her father has a similar pull on people. If Maggie ever has offspring (and I hope she does!), then I want them to be the same self-aware, self-punishing individuals that she is.

When you consider that an ‘M-band’ is likely to be produced in our near future, novels like this one are warnings of how things shouldn’t be done. If it was me, I’d want to exploit ‘Perfect Matches’. Instead of going for lust enhancers, I’d travel the world trying to find my Perfect Match. I’m not in the least surprised that this dystopian interpretation of the future also involves a society whose running is based on sex.

Something that Shirvington does extremely well is character building and maintaining characterisation. There isn’t any time where you feel like you’ve jumped into a character’s head and found that everything in there is mixed up from what you expected. What you feel, is what you get.

Tell me this is an Australian author, and I’ll try and reject your claim – it is just that good! I haven’t seen many authors lately that are inspiring and enjoyable to read as Shirvington’s works. Highly recommended. 5 stars.

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Review: Karelia Stetz-Waters – The Admirer

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The Admirer
Karelia Stetz-Waters

Helen Ivers has just become president of a tiny little college literally in the middle of nowhere. The college is out of money, and falling apart, and Helen is falling apart too. With a lonely set of legs greeting her on her first visit, and a VERY helpful secretary, Helen will be the next victim if she doesn’t get her act together.

19360798This author knows how to pack a punch. I was blown away by the way Karelia drew me into loving her protagonist and then added as many things as possible to her life that made me want to cringe away – just like watching the metaphorical train wreck (haha).

It isn’t ever clear to the reader who the true culprit is, except that it is a man (from the pronouns used in the parts that . The ‘red herrings’ that another reviewer complained of didn’t bother me. I found that it only added to the suspense, as one by one the potential killers are crossed off the list, and yet the victims remain in danger.

The denied romance between Wilson and Ivers added another layer of tension. Even as you wished Helen would give in to her desires, she doesn’t, and refuses to accept anything. The people Helen trusts are few, and as the reader can tell the killer is not a woman, the reader is pretty much driven mad by Helen’s refusal to trust Wilson.

What I would have liked more would have been if I got more background on how the killer came to come away from the asylum, be educated, and then go back to living nearby. Small town politics are one thing, covering up years of history is another.

Something I didn’t get a sense for was the time period of the novel. How many places still have a potentially deadly asylum and wells left in the forest? Especially in the USA, where surely things have been expanded into rapidly? But then I reflected on the homeless camp depicted in the novel and concluded that bad things still happen, and who knows what is lurking in the dark?

I’m not sure how convinced I am of the ending. I don’t mind things being left open, but without the promise of something more that is actually substantial, I don’t know how to feel. Imagine my surprise when I looked on GoodReads and discovered another novel containing Helen and Wilson. Let me at it!

I so want to discuss this novel further, I enjoyed it that much. But I don’t want to give away all of its secrets – go and get a copy for yourself.

I requested this novel from the author after very much enjoying two of her other novels (Something True and Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before). These are a set of books I wouldn’t hesitate recommending you to buy – and I’m fulling intending on getting my hands on more paperback copies of all her novels, for rereading again and again and again.

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Review: Cynthia Hand – The Last Time We Say Goodbye

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The Last Time We Say Goodbye

Cynthia Hand

Lexi used to be a typical teenager – as typical as a very intelligent proclaimed math nerd can get. Now she’s just the girl who’s brother committed suicide. With a heavy dose of blame, and the beginning of panic attacks, her psychiatrist suggests that she writes a journal to get her thoughts out.

17285330Since I listened to this as an audiobook, I’m not actually sure which parts were the journal, and which parts were actually happening as time went on. It didn’t matter to me though. The audio-reader did a fantastic job of differentiating between the different voices of the characters, and I felt that the author’s intentions underlying her different storytelling techniques were not lost.

At times the novel tried to set me crying. I listened to it while doing some craft-work and I had to stop and put my things down! I listened to it with my partner in some places, and she was just as invested in the story as I was, even though it seemed to be very long!

That damn letter! Arg! The whole middle section of the novel had me wishing she would just open the damn thing already, and damn her morals! She feels so conflicted about everything, and surely simplifying just one or two things would be good. At least then she would know why Ty left.

Lex blames herself for Ty’s death, because she feels that she wasn’t there for him. The ending satisfactorily wraps this up, and gives the reader important points to take away. This, along with all the repercussions of his death, really highlights to the reader that suicide is not a ‘weak’ choice.

The secondary characters seem unimportant for the majority of the novel, but at least some of them gradually develop. Mainly we don’t see any action from them because Lex is too caught up in her own problems and spirit-filled world. Stephen could have had a bit more of a showing, and I would have loved to see inside his head sometimes. But that’s the problem with first-person novels! I’ll never know!

Overall, this novel gets my whole-hearted thumbs up. 5 stars from me – I only wish I had the time to reread it though.

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Review: Robert Uttaro – To the Survivors

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To the Survivors
Robert Uttaro

This novel is written by a rape crisis counselor, who has dealt with rape survivors for the last 7 years. He has done events to increase the awareness of rape, and supported the survivor speakers at those events. And now he has written a novel, exposing some of the day-to-day realities of how survivors deal with the world, and how the world can be more sensitive towards them.

The horrifying statistics of rape, for 1 in 4 women, and 1 in 6 men, at least in the USA, should pinprick a readers heart, and then the stories from the survivors themselves will stop your heart from beating. Depending on how sensitive you are feeling that day, you might even find yourself in tears.
This novel is written by a man. Why would you want a book about rape written by a man? All men are rapist, right? Not so. Uttaro makes it abundantly clear that rape is not just for women, or that only women are affected. Men who are raped are less common, but that doesn’t mean they don’t go through the same healing process.
The quality of this novel is in its storytelling within the chapters closer to the end. While the background information on the author is interesting, it is not as keenly occupying as the stories. The text is usually well written and expressed, although there are some sections where I didn’t mind putting the book down. It is not fiction however, and therefore please don’t expect a linear ‘narrative’.
Why might I want to read a novel about rape, of all things? The author himself asked me this question, because my usual reading of things is fiction or fantasy, and this novel is certainly not either of those. It’s about the human story. I love hearing about extremes of the ‘human condition’ – rape, suicide, murder, violence – because I like to know the motives of it, I want to know what it really is like. This novel gets inside the minds of rape survivors and makes it possible for the reader to empathize.
I’d strongly recommend this novel to ALL readers. It’s certainly intended as an adult novel, but I think that mature teenagers should be allowed access to it. Nay, even encouraged to read it. Potentially excerpts could be used in high schools, such as in health and development days. The only way to stigmatize rape and decrease it’s incidence is to TALK ABOUT IT. This novel provides a good starting point for that discussion.

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Review: Ilka Tampke – Skin

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Skin
Ilka Tampke

Ailia has no Skin. She doesn’t know who her parents were, and so she cannot learn or do anything in society. Like any other untutored woman, she wants to learn more of the world – and in learning more of the world she will either save or destroy it.

I could accuse this book of taking a slow pace of progression, and spending too much time on the details. But I wouldn’t, because it’s deftly crafted in that I didn’t feel the passage of time (just as Ailia does in the Mothers’ world) and I slipped fluidly from scene to scene. The world building, while it has the support of being crafted on a real-world geography, felt nicely fleshed out, despite focusing on such a small part of a landscape.

Ailia is all you could want in a gritty heroine. Like others of her kind, she is different from the rest of the community. But she is able to reach out past that – she isn’t always lonely, other people still see some good in her. Despite not being able to completely be treated like a true member of society, she has friends, she’s protected to some extent, and for what she is, she has a good place in life. She doesn’t mean to go off-track, it just happens!

It’s amazing how often I am drawn to historical fantasies without realizing it. This novel takes fact and fiction and intertwines them in a manner that means you can’t see how history could have happened without magic.

While I could predict some of what Ailia’s journey would be, other parts of the novel surprised me. I didn’t see a number of twists coming (although many of them appeared to happen from the same instance), but they were nicely woven into the rest of the storyline, and there wasn’t anything that came completely out of nowhere.

What frustrated me was the comment from Isobelle Carmody on the back, saying this novel had something to do with human yearning. No! This novel is so much more than that! While Ailia wants to learn things, that doesn’t mean she’s a love-sick idiot. She knows exactly what she should expect from life, and instead of yearning after it, she goes and does it.

I finished this novel on a very satisfied note. No, not everything turned out the way the reader might expect, but at the same time it was so so satisfying. I didn’t feel like the author had set it up to be a cash cow and write more sequels, I felt like she had reached the end of that saga, sat back, and been pleased with her work.

This novel suckered me in. I should have been doing some housework, and instead I sat down with a doona and a cup of tea to read this novel. 4.5 stars from me, simply because I’m not sure it’s good enough for a reread. Otherwise, highly recommended.

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Review: Katerina West – Witchcraft Couture

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Witchcraft Couture
Katerina
While Oscar Pellegrino has had bursts of creativity, he finds himself in a creative slump again. Fleeing from himself into Russia to visit his mother’s birthplace, he himself undergoes a transformation to become the slave of the Sampo.
Oscar seems like he got all the wrong things from his mother, and it seems fitting that the Sampo, while bringing Oscar’s creations to life, seems to be sucking the life out of his mother. Is it a metaphor of the Sampo’s abilities? Is it really happening? Oscar refuses to ask himself these questions for fear of the answers. It is a story of magic having its price, yet with an air of reality that makes the reader doubt his or her own mind.
Sarah is just a rotten egg. She’s ambitious, driven and an all around killer. I felt like she was responsible for all of the failures in Oscar’s life – her and his mother do an excellent job of breaking him If it wasn’t for them, Oscar could have held it together! Instead he’s off on a chase in Russia, which begins his rollercoaster ride to the top of fashion and back down.
Something the author brought in for me was that the fashion houses were always undergoing changes, their popularity changing over time.  I’ve never been very interested in fashion, but I do know that certain clothes suit certain people. This is an exploration of the concept of that it is ‘truly the clothes that make the woman’. Anyone can look good in Oscar’s clothes.
I didn’t understand why Ben would destroy the dress. Veronica wears the dresses without any ill effects. Some of the people just seem so suspicious. I think it is somewhat absurd that ordinary people would believe that dresses can have such an effect on people – that’s what the novel seems to ask the reader. This reminded me of the feminist ideas that are always being rolled around somewhere in the world. It is ‘always’ the woman’s fault for being raped, because if she didn’t dress provocatively, no one would have been raped.
While the drawn-out descriptions of colours and tastes might put you off, instead read them as another insight into Oscar’s mind. The text is beautifully written and edited. I wasn’t even put off by a small detail being out of place, in fact the world felt so complete to me that I stepped into it and I was lost within it while reading. I finished reading this novel feeling like something profound had happened to me while reading it. This is what I expected from Strum, but failed to find.
Even if literary fiction isn’t your thing, I really suggest giving this novel a go. While the beginning is a little slow, it speeds up until you can’t bear to put it down. I became so invested in the outcome of Oscar’s designing that I continued thinking about it even when I put it down.
I think I’d give this 4-5 stars. It’s unlikely that I will re-read it so I can’t give it an unequivocal 5 stars, but it’s so worth reading even if you have just a crumb of interest in literature.

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Review: Kit Alloway – Dreamfire

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Dreamfire
Kit Alloway
Josh is a dreamwalker – she enters the dreams of others to save them from her nightmares. On the eve of her 17th birthday, she still regrets and fears her relationship with others. Shackled with an apprentice that she doesn’t think she can care for, she needs to stop the men in gas masks while still holding up a facade of normality.
This novel was brilliant. Dreamwalking isn’t exactly a new concept, and neither is traits like this running in a family. But what is new is the idea of fates, and them being written down means they can be stolen. This novel combined so many good things, and scientific facts that when new things happened, they seemed quite believable.
The action sequences are breathtaking, and the possibility that people really do get hurt makes them all the more real. Once you’re attached to Josh and her apprentice (and her whole family), you can’t bear the thought of them being injured. When they are, it’s like a blow to your own heart.
I felt both satisfied and unsatisfied with the ending. Why did it have to end? And at the same time, it’s been left open for a sequel. For this to be a debut novel, it’s likely that Penguin was taking a chance on the author and not committing to a longer contract. But I sure hope they do!
A touch of romance is all a novel like this needs – not too cloying, and gritty instead. Josh isn’t a passive person, and she’s not a passive girlfriend. But when you look at her background, she was a bit needy. The only part that didn’t work for me was near the ending.
I felt pleasantly frustrated at times. I wanted to know Josh’s background in bigger chunks! I wanted more of everything! I wanted more nightmares! Sigh. I want more of these characters. They’re all built so nicely, their world is well-realised, and I couldn’t put it down.
What would I have liked to have done differently? Well, one niggly thing was that the ‘W’ names got me a bit confused at times. And swapping between the dreamweaver names and their ‘English’ equivalents sometimes left me feeling confused as well. It could be there was a connection between the two uses, but I’d have to reread to make sure.
I received this novel from Penguin – and I couldn’t have been happier that I had requested it. 5 stars – I can’t wait to read it again.

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