Month: August 2020

‘Made You Up’ – Francesca Zappia

Our first encounter with Alex is her recollection of trying to free the lobsters from a supermarket tank. I admit to being unsure what to make of the start, but then she tells us that this event never happened and I was thrown. How could someone have a memory that wasn’t of a real event?

It’s at this point that we learn Alex has schizophrenia, and that her obsessive photo-taking is a way of trying to keep a grip on reality – looking at the pictures later helps her work out what she’s hallucinated and what was really there. When she first starts at her new school she is determined to do whatever she can to stay under the radar…only she finds herself drawn to loner Miles who scares everyone else. This might seem nothing, until we learn that she believes Miles to be the boy who helped her to free the lobsters (which she thinks didn’t happen).

The book seemed a sensitive attempt to show how something like schizophrenia can affect a person. Most of the time I felt real sympathy for how exhausting life must be for Alex, though there were some laugh-out-loud moments which really kept us on our toes.

While the main focus is Alex and how she finds herself living with her condition, there was also the focus on the mystery surrounding Miles and his family and the downright odd things happening in the school.
Quirky, but very interesting read.

 

‘Cut Off’ – Adrianne Finlay

Mind-bending stuff, that really forces you to consider the possibilities for some of the technology that surrounds us everyday – but which also makes me more than a little paranoid about what kinds of things could be researched without us being aware of it.

From the moment I read about Cut Off I was excited to read it – and it more than lived up to my expectations. Its main focus is, we’re told, a new kind of reality TV show. Our contestants – all desperate to win the prize of a million dollars -are abandoned on an island and the aim is to survive. At any point they can ‘tap out’ and leave, but the winner will have to prove themselves first. While this might seem fairly standard fare, for this show there is immersive technology that means viewers can feel like they’re experiencing the same things as the contestants.

The book opens in fairly typical territory. We’re introduced to River, Trip, Cam and Liza who appear to be the only four contestants around. Strange things have been happening – and there appears to be no power. There’s a growing sense of unease as the contestants start to realise that the technology to rescue them is no longer working, and there’s a very real chance that nobody is coming to save them. All too soon it’s clear that this survival game could be more important than anything they thought they were signing up for.

As it stood, there were a range of possibilities for what was going on with the contestants. It didn’t stray too far from what I expected at first. Their journey across the island, as they try to work out what to do next, made it increasingly obvious that we were in a far stranger world than any we might have conjured for ourselves. Once we started to unpick what was happening and we were given some ideas about the background to their situation, I was getting definite ‘we’re not in Kansas, anymore’ vibes.

It’s important not to give too many details away, as this is a journey you need to live with the characters. Each character had their own motivation for being on the show, and as we learn about them we come to understand a little more of the world around them. The characters were, in their own way, flawed but each of them was able to offer something to keep the reader engaged with them.

‘The Pull of the Stars’ – Emma Donoghue

 

The Pull of the Stars would be a great read at any time, but as we find ourselves still fighting Coronavirus every page felt important.

Set in Ireland, 1918, we focus on a small part of a much wider problem. Still fighting the ravages of war, the effects of this flu sweeping the nation are evident everywhere. We see them through the eyes of nurse Julia, a woman dedicated to her patients on the maternity ward as she goes about her work.

I was struck by the hopelessness of the situation these people were in. The cheery slogans urging people how to fight this seemed so at odds with what they were experiencing due to poverty or a lack of social care that I felt real anger about how such situations are handled (more a response to what’s happening now than through any knowledge of the time).

From the opening pages I found myself fascinated by the little details Donoghue records about life on the maternity ward in the grip of a pandemic. There was so much to find bleak and dispiriting about this – with the characters we encounter having a high death rate – but there were also some beautiful moments that will stay with me awhile. The joy of the singing between Bridie and the orderly, the elation at a healthy birth after a problematic experience and the sense of hope found from the eating of the blood orange her brother brought all the way from Italy and saved for her birthday.

While there was a lot to find frustrating about this, the time overwhelmingly was one of resolve and determination to wring the life out of your time on this world. A good lesson.

Thanks to the author, publishers and NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

‘One Step Behind’ – Lauren North

One Step Behind is one of those books that promises a lot, but doesn’t quite live up to its promises. It was fine, but it didn’t strike me as particularly memorable.

Our main character is Jenna, a doctor, who is clearly unsettled as she believes someone has been stalking her. She’s been receiving strange emails and calls, and odd gifts have been left on her doorstep. She has contacted the police, who’ve advised her to record any incidents. She catches odd glimpses of the person she believes is responsible, but nothing sufficient to enable the police to arrest him.

One day she is on duty when the man she’s seen following her is admitted into hospital after seemingly being pushed in front of a bus. He’s gravely ill, yet Jenna treats him professionally. She could have let him die, but she didn’t. However, while he’s in hospital Jenna is determined to do whatever is needed to stop this harassment. Finally, I remember thinking, something will move this on.

Unfortunately, what follows was drawn out far longer than really was necessary. It was clear that Jenna was struggling. There were obvious issues with her family and support network, and once we’d established the link between her stalker and someone she knows it was definitely far too transparent to keep us waiting for so long before things finally started to unravel.

Eventually things come to a head. We learn that there’s a lot of messed up people, and most of them don’t really seem to learn anything from this experience.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for my honest review.

 

‘No Offense’ – Meg Cabot

A rather obvious romance with some cute moments, though it all felt too clearly signposted.

Molly Montgomery is the new librarian in the charming town of Little Bridge. When she finds a baby abandoned in the new library we know there’s something strange going on. She is intrigued by the case, and just a little curious about the sheriff investigating it.

From the outset we can tell there will be romance between our sheriff and the librarian, and we’re just waiting to see what else goes on alongside it.
There’s some cute scenes, and you can’t help but like them, but it doesn’t really offer anything out of the ordinary. Perfect summer read, and I’m grateful to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this prior to publication.

 

‘The Only Good Indians’ – Stephen Graham Jones

My first experience of this author, and listening to a book rather than physically reading it. That, I’m sure, impacted on my ability to settle into the story as it is such an unfamiliar way of reading for me.

When I started this I really didn’t know what to expect. I, like many, have heard the rest of the phrase this title is taken from, and the pre-release info makes it clear this is not a book for the faint-hearted. I have little experience of the background of the characters this book focused on, so I was definitely nervous about missing something or doing the author a disservice through my own ignorance.

The book opens with a frankly unsettling scene, resulting in the death of an Indian man outside a bar. There’s mention of elk, and I really did have to go back and listen to the start again as I thought I had misheard something! We then switch our focus to another character, Lewis, who we learn was part of a close-knit group of four young men who did something so awful that even after leaving his reservation he lives with the guilt. We learn this event took place ten years previously, and it’s something to do with the strange and unsettling experiences of him imagining he now sees an elk-headed woman in his front room.

Initially I have to say I found the narrative of this quite hard to follow. We jump from event to event and there’s a muddling of time-frames that left me quite confused and even wondering if I could get through this. I don’t honestly know if this would have been any different reading…and looking at other’s responses to this, perhaps not.

If you’ve decided to pick this up and read it then you’re likely to have done a little research. We know the story focuses on the awful events that took place ten years before our book opens – where Lewis and his three friends venture onto a section of the reservation that is only meant to be accessed by elders and butcher a number of elk. They are punished, and alongside their feelings of guilt they have to contend with the expectations of others because of who they are. Now, ten years on, something has returned to get revenge.

The book was dark. We had graphic descriptions of dogs being mutilated, elk being shot and people being killed. As the book progressed and there was talk of the elk-head woman I wasn’t sure if this was going into supernatural territory or whether some kind of breakdown was being described. During the narrative we switched viewpoints from Lewis to the elk as well as the daughter of one of the men involved in the original event.

Once we were back on the reservation and following Cassidy and Gabe, I was surprised at how funny parts of this book were. Thought I’m no basketball fan, I was completely gripped by the character of Gabe’s daughter who really made this into something more than I was expecting. The final scene, though definitely not one I want to dwell on, was also more uplifting than I was expecting.

Thanks to the publishers, Saga Press, and NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication.

‘Devolution’ – Max Brooks

As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined… until now. But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing – and too earth-shattering in its implications – to be forgotten.

Whatever we might think of the legends, it’s impossible not to be fascinated by the stories. I really didn’t quite know where this book would go, but it was a story I was curious to read once I’d heard about it.

The premise is quite straightforward…the author has found journals belonging to Kate Holland, a young woman who moved into Greenloop (a remote hi-tech village) that tells us about the aftermath of a volcanic eruption and the residents’ attempts to survive. She is missing, so nobody knows exactly what happened, but her journals tell us that the group were found by Bigfoot.

Whatever your view of this legend, the idea of an undiscovered animal race is fascinating. Much of our fascination with such a creature comes with our need to work out our place in society and to consider how we could interact with such a group.

What I learnt from this is to be careful what you wish for, and to think carefully about the skills you have before you go and live somewhere so remote. You never know what you’re capable of until you are forced into the position of need.

As we watch Kate, her partner Dan and the other residents come to the realisation that they’re no longer top of the food chain there’s a distinctly menacing feel to this. Gruesome at times, it explores just how far we are prepared to go to survive.

Of course it would have been nice to have a rounded-off story but I liked the way this was done. Scary – absolutely – but very very interesting.

 

‘The Night Swim’ – Megan Goldin

 

Thank you to the author, publisher St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication in exchange for my review. Having just finished, I feel emotionally wrecked – and though the subject for this book will be a trigger for some readers, it’s a must-read in my view.

The first thing I have to make clear is that fans of The Escape Room, or anyone who’s picked this up because it’s marketed as a tense thriller could well be disappointed. It’s tense on occasion, but this struck me as a more complicated mystery and it would be such a shame for readers to feel put-off as they expected something different.

Something I have to state early on is that I loved the narrative of this. Our main character, Rachel, is producing her third series of a popular crime podcast. She has attracted many fans, so for this series opts to head to a small town to cover a live case…that of a potential Olympic swimmer accused of raping a sixteen year old girl known only as K. It poses risks – and as the book begins we sense there’ll be more to it, but I was quite taken aback by the links between this case and one from twenty-five years earlier.

I really don’t want to say too much about either case, as I think the success of this novel depends on us establishing the facts of each case as they’re revealed and – like Rachel – slowly piecing together the links.

I hurt reading this, and that’s no bad thing. Reading the details of the events described, and the behaviour of those in court was tough. Necessary, but draining. I cannot emphasise enough how much I think this book – awful though the subject is – should be read by everyone.

‘The Heatwave’ – Katerina Diamond

I’ve loved the Imogen Grey series so far, so was keen to read this standalone by Diamond. It’s a tricky one to review, as there is a lot going on.

Our main character is someone with something to hide. She catches a news report of a girl going missing in Sidmouth, and though she lives in the Lake District she says she has to travel down to sort out things from her past that she thinks are connected to this disappearance. We know no more than that, but we definitely want answers.

Once she arrives in this picturesque town we get a real sense of something hidden, though not enough to help us piece things together with any certainty. I found it odd that people were so keen to spill details of this missing girl to someone they either didn’t know or only vaguely recollected.

While it offered us insight into the narrator, it felt weird to have the split narrative talking about her time in the town as a teenager. We learnt about her friendship with Felicity, the strange events surrounding her teacher and the mysterious Tim who was befriended by her parents though the reasons for this aren’t clear.

As the story progresses it’s apparent that the events of the past are the ones we should be concerned with. If we learn what happened, then the links to the present day will be clearer. When we eventually reach this point it did feel rather abrupt, which jarred a little. It offered some resolution but not quite as I’d hoped for.

The book itself is a read I’d recommend, and I’m grateful to the publishers for letting me read it in advance of publication, but I was hoping for something a little different.

 

‘Breathless’ – Jennifer Niven

Thank you, Jennifer Niven, for writing the book that I needed as a teenager, and showing that, even though the results may not be exactly what you want, you have to be open to the possibilities life offers.

Breathless starts slowly, and while I was enjoying it I didn’t think it was going to cause the emotional gut-punch it did. It’s a book about love, learning to accept yourself and to have the confidence to take risks as they hurt but can bring wonderful things.

The main character in this, Claude, is a curious character, who definitely grew on me. She starts the book in a fairly safe place with certain expectations, then learns that things don’t always go to plan…but it can be okay. She is definitely feeling uncertain as she’s about to head to college, her best friend has started a relationship she didn’t know about and things are changing/she’s losing control of the things happening around her. Her summer begins in an unsettling way, with her parents announcing they are going to split up and she is expected to spend the summer on an island with her mother.

Cut off from everything she knows, this actually opens Claude to the possibility of new experiences. She takes solace in the immediacy of the wonderful natural environment around her, she learns to ride a bike and she starts a relationship with someone who changes her in ways she couldn’t imagine.

It would be so easy to reduce this to a summer romance category and make what we watch between Claude and Miah seem trite. That would, I think, be missing the point. It might not be exactly what we’d wish for either, but in its own way it’s beautiful.

I will be urging everyone to read this upon its September 2020 release, and would like to thank the publishers, Penguin, and NetGalley for letting me read it early.