Category: Contemporary

‘Not Here to be Liked’ – Michelle Quach

A topical yet entertaining story, that delivers a sweet romance while exploring some pretty big ideas.

Our main character, Eliza, is a rather serious young woman. Her parents want her to succeed in school so she has a choice for her future career. Eliza is desperate to be editor-in-chief for her school paper and it seems she’s a guarantee for the role. But she hadn’t banked on new writer, Len, applying for the role…and when he gets it she is disappointed.

Eliza throws herself into venting her thoughts, blaming his success on the misogyny at play. When her vent is published it sparks a school-wide movement…but things get complicated when Eliza is forced to work with Len and finds herself developing feelings for her purported enemy.

The enemies to lovers thing isn’t new, but I liked that we get to see both views here and are not expected to see everything simply. The focus on parental expectations in certain family environments was interesting, and it was good to have characters that were a little more nuanced than we might have expected for a group of teens.

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to access this before publication.

 

‘Stranded’ – Sarah Goodwin

 

Stranded is a book that surpassed my wildest dreams…it went far beyond what I expected, and had a haunting quality that will stay with me. This is a book I expected to like, but it was so well-written that I can’t wait to recommend it to others.

The story focuses on eight very different people, cherry-picked by a team of producers to take part in a new reality TV show. They are to be taken to a remote island off the coast of Scotland where their every move will be recorded as they have to live in a new community for a year. As is made clear, something goes terribly wrong and not everyone survives this experience. Of course, we want to know what happens and how, but we are made to wait!

Our main character is Maddy. Something of a loner she wants to participate in the show as a way of escaping her reality after the death of her parents. Fitting in with new people doesn’t come naturally to her, so we are placed in the enviable position of watching things through Maddy’s eyes…outsiders, monitoring the interactions of the group and left to second-guess the motivations of others based on what Maddy tells us about them.

The other group members have – it’s clear – been picked as a way of generating conflict. Things begin positively enough, but it doesn’t take much to set off a deterioration in the group dynamic. All too soon we’re in a Lord of the Flies-style hell, with each of the group fighting for survival.

There was a certain tension that came from knowing that Maddy survived and was being interviewed about her experience. I feared this knowledge would mar the reading experience, but it actually heightened the tension for me since I was desperate to see exactly what had happened and how she’d managed to escape when things looked so very bleak. I also found the introduction of the supernatural at key moments a positive as it illustrated the extreme mental duress she was under.

I can’t thank the publishers and NetGalley enough for allowing me to read this before publication. A truly exciting book…

‘The Fell’ – Sarah Moss

Living in the environment in which this is set, The Fell seemed as if it would encapsulate so much of my own feelings/experiences that I hoped this would be a book I found myself falling in love with. I wasn’t disappointed.

The story is deceptively simple. A mother, Kate, finding the restrictions of lockdown mentally challenging is struggling with the demands of a period of enforced self-isolation. Though it’s illegal, one afternoon she takes her backpack and walks out onto the hills of the Peak District. She doesn’t tell her teenage son she is going, a neighbour sees her leave and says nothing, but when she doesn’t return and night is drawing in the choice is made to call out Mountain Rescue.

Fragments of thoughts and we get a range of perspectives as the hunt for Kate goes through the night. We read the thoughts of Kate, her son, the neighbour – Alice, and mountain rescue volunteer Rob. It was surprisingly easy to read about the thoughts and feelings of each towards the lockdown of November 2020. The nuances of each characters’ reactions to events was well-captured, and though much of the focus tended to the mundane I felt it was an approach that allowed us to reflect on the ideas explored. Where this book won me over was with the descriptions of an environment which I deeply love, but also respect…knowing just how easily it can go wrong.

Thank you to Picador and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this in advance of publication. I’ve already reserved a physical copy and can see myself re-reading this.

’56 Days’ – Catherine Ryan Howard

A book set in the early days of lockdown is, while we are still living with the virus that pre-emptied such circumstances, always going to be tricky to read.

Thankfully, COVID is a backdrop to the very specific set of circumstances taking place at this point in the story we watch unfold. It certainly does not unduly affect the narrative that we’re concerned with.

From the start we know that a body has been discovered in an apartment in Dublin. Little information is given initially, other than the body seems to have been there for a few weeks. Of course, anyone would have questions.

The narrative then shifts to 56 days ago, when new to the city Ollie meets Ciara. The pair talk briefly, seem to hit it off and decide to go on a date. With a fledgling relationship happening at the precise time that lockdown is announced, it could go either way. The pair decide to take their chances and move in together.

We are shown the events from both the viewpoint of Ollie and Ciara. We are alerted to the fact that both are keeping secrets. Other information is imparted on a strictly need-to-know basis, and sometimes done in such a way as to send you scurrying down the wrong route. When you become aware of these little bits of misdirection, you’ll kick yourself but then be desperate to see exactly what happened.

As the pieces fell into place I pitied those caught up in investigating the crime. Suffice to say, nothing is as it seems…and it certainly shows how your past can – no matter how careful you have been – catch up with you.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in advance of publication.

 

‘Ski Weekend’ – Rektor Ross

Ski Weekend takes what could be a very ordinary event and, through a combination of bad luck and poor judgment, turns it into a thrilling adventure where you know not everyone is going to survive but hope it won’t be as bad as you fear.

The book opens with six teens heading on a ski weekend. Sam and her younger brother, Stuart, and his best friend, Gavin, along with three other classmates and Gavin’s dog. The mood at the start is fairly typical – lighthearted joking with a bit of sniping – but when they learn the road is closed their decision to take a little-known shortcut brings about a horrifying set of circumstances.

Nine times out of ten, their actions would have ended just fine. This time, there’s a crash and they are stranded in the wilderness with a storm approaching and no way of contacting anyone. They settle down to sit out the time until someone comes to save them, but all too soon they realise that nobody knows they’re lost and they cannot guarantee anyone coming to rescue them.

After an initial attempt to scout for potential help, Stuart is injured. He gets sick, and as the storm draws in it is clear they are not all going to make it out alive.
While the characters involved are not all bound to survive, the way they are presented means we get to know them pretty well and find ourselves caring about them more than you might expect. The creeping sense of unease is ramped up until, finally, we know a difficult decision has to be made. Some of the details are a little more graphic than I’d have liked, but I was pleased that some of my fears about what could have happened to them did not come to pass.

Overall, this was a story that I found myself far more caught up in than I expected. I could certainly see this making a great movie, and I enjoyed the fact the characters were more fleshed out than is often the case in this kind of thriller/horror survival story.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this in advance of publication (expected October 2021).

‘At the End of Everything’ – Marieke Nijkamp

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to its January 2022 publication. Finding yourself caught up in an event of such magnitude is not something you could, generally, prepare for…but the events of recent years have, I think understandably, made people reflect on what they might do in such a situation and what is important to them.

Our story is set principally in the Hope Juvenile Treatment Centre, a place where those teens people don’t know what to do with are dumped. Nobody really notices them, nobody cares about them…and they are abandoned when the guards receive notice of an infectious disease spreading outside.

The book opens with establishing the hierarchy within the Centre, and introducing us to some of the key characters. Once the teens discover they have been left alone, the book focuses on their immediate reaction, the challenge to establish some sense of normalcy within the group and their ongoing attempts to survive in the face of something they have no idea how to beat.

After an attempted break-out results in the death of one of their party, and the realisation that they have been abandoned, those that remain in Hope are shown working out how to survive. There is the very real fear of catching the disease, there’s the reality of coping with an unknown situation and there’s the ongoing issues that come with having to trust people you don’t necessarily feel able to trust.

The book shows teens coping in adverse circumstances – and doing a much better job of it than many adults. We also get to see some of our core group learning about themselves and how to cope with some of their own issues that may impact on their lives outside. Not everything ends well, but there is a sense of resolve and optimism that remains throughout.

‘I Am Still Alive’ – Kate Alice Marshall

Jess Cooper is, depending on which if the final stories you listen to, a footnote in a much bigger story or a plucky heroine. Whichever version you plump for, you can’t ignore the fact she’s resourceful, determined and – dare I say it – a little bit lucky.

The book begins in a suitably dramatic fashion. Jess is alone, watching the remains of a cabin smouldering. She reveals her father is dead, she’s alone in the Alaskan wilderness and that there are men involved who could hurt her. Of course we have questions, but Jess controls her narrative and tells us there are two beginnings to her story – before her father died and after. With a start like that, how could you not want to know more?

When we first meet Jess in her ‘before’ narrative she’s struggling after surviving the car crash that killed her mother. She is being sent to live with the father she hasn’t seen for years, and her injuries make even walking hard. Given where she’s at, it wasn’t difficult to understand her upset at being taken to her father…in a remote cabin somewhere in the Alaskan wilderness. He’s a survivalist, and she is stuck with him.

Reading about her at this point was frustrating. She was hurting, uprooted from everything she knew and definitely a reluctant participant in this drama. The only thing she seemed to like was Bo, her father’s dog. It was interesting to see how she adapted to this situation – and it was clear she wasn’t as ill-equipped for it as many sixteen year olds might have been – but we weren’t being given any details of what happened.

Eventually, it couldn’t be put off longer and we were given the story of how Jess came to be alone. This was shocking, made me see her in quite a different light…and I think encourages you to hope she’ll take what she’s learned in the short time she had with her father to get through this.

This story won’t be to everyone’s tastes. I’m not wholly convinced she would have come out of the initial experience alive, but she did and that meant I was invested in seeing her remain alive. Some stomach churning moments but definitely a dramatic bit of escapism.

‘Can’t Take That Away’ – Steven Salvatore

This was a book that I picked up out of curiosity and feeling the need to raise my own awareness. As a teacher I am, more than anything, struck by the difference this shows educators can make to the experience of those in their care and am horrified that such bigoted views as those expressed by Mr Jackson and Max could be tolerated and supported. It certainly made me think about how each of us can play our part in creating a community where everyone within it feels safe enough to be themselves.

The main character of Carey Parker is one that engaged and infuriated me in equal measure. I felt so angry on their behalf that they would have to endure some of the things they experienced, pride that they found the strength to be themselves and allow others to support them and utterly exasperated by their inability to be honest at times with those who meant so much to them.

The story is quite straightforward. Carey is genderqueer, and in a bid to regain some of the power they feel they have surrendered they audition for a part in their school musical. This sets up a quite remarkable chain of events culminating in a nationally-noticed protest about the discrimination evident in their school and a ‘treat’ of meeting their heroine Mariah Carey. Along the way we focus on their shifting friendships and some major life events involving their grandmother.

I’d love to say this book isn’t necessary, but that isn’t the case. It was informative, engaging in showing a young person coming of age and developing in confidence and certainly one to get people talking.

 

‘The Echo Chamber’ – John Boyne

The Echo Chamber is a curious read. It’s being touted as biting satire and a topical exploration of our obsession with social media…I’m not wholly convinced that’s quite what we’ve got, but it’s an entertaining diversion in some areas.

The focus of the book is the Cleverley family. George has been a favourite of the BBC for years, prone to the odd gaffe on air and his wife, Beverley, is a writer of popular romances (though she employs a ghost writer and merely gives the ideas) who has been having an affair with her partner on Strictly. Their three children have led a rather charmed life, and the whole family is obsessed with their social media accounts and profiles. The story (such as it is) focuses on a short period of time in their lives when everything blows up in spectacular fashion, leading them to reflect on their reliance on others’ affirmations.

As I was reading this I couldn’t help but rail at just how unlikeable each of the characters was. Much was made of the role social media had in this family’s trials and tribulations, but they seemed to be doing a very effective job of being rather unlikeable and messing things up in their own. For us to care about the fates of the characters there really has to be something about them we might like/admire. This was lacking, so it meant I read the book not really feeling anything had happened to these characters that they weren’t instrumental in bringing about.

There were some moments of mild amusement, but some of the observations became repetitive and simply telling us over and over again about an issue without offering any alternative doesn’t really seem the point of satire. For too much of the book it felt like Boyne had generated his own echo chamber. The reading of this felt like ordering and drinking an overpriced coffee, where everything was superficially appealing but the reality was full of froth with little substance.

I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to give my honest thoughts on this prior to publication, but it was not quite the experience I’d hoped for.

 

‘In the Wild Light’ – Jeff Zentner

In the Wild Light is a book that I’m going to have to recommend with caution. I imagine anyone who picks it up will enjoy it, but this book – in the right hands – has the capacity to break someone time and time again, before slotting the broken bits back together and forging something new. Yes, this is going to be a book that I know I’ll read again (and that doesn’t happen often), will find ways to use excerpts from in class and will always wish I could recapture the feelings I had as I read it for the first time.

Our main characters, Cash and Delaney, come from a small town called Sawyer in Tennessee. Cash lives with his grandparents after the overdose of his mother, and Delaney’s mother seems to be heading the same way. Cash’s grandfather is dying of emphysema, and the pair of them are coming under pressure from a local dealer to get involved in things they’d rather avoid. At the start of the book I was convinced this would be bleak reading.

We are told early on that Delaney has made an important scientific discovery. How big a thing this is doesn’t become obvious until we’re told that she has an exclusive prep school offering both her and Cash full scholarships to study there. Though they have reservations about leaving at such a time, they are encouraged to break out of their home environment and take a risk.

The opportunity to study at such an establishment cannot be ignored. It changes them both in ways they could never have foreseen, but it also allows them to reflect on what they have come from and what is important to each of them.

There were so many passages and moments within the book that I loved that it’s hard to focus on specifics. The friendship between Delaney and Cash is at the heart of the book, but they would not be where they are without the support of Cash’s grandparents. The professor who fosters Cash’s ability to write was inspiring, and each of the students Cash and Delaney find themselves befriending had something about them. The story is quite simple, but the way in which is written is achingly beautiful. Though I was expecting some of the bleak moments, there were more…but, at its core, there was a strong sense of hope that cannot be ignored.

Jeff Zentner has created a story that goes beyond the boundaries of the page. It’s a love story, testimony to the power of friendship, family and environment. It’s a story that cannot be forgotten.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this in advance of its August release.