Category: Contemporary

‘Boy Meets Hamster’ – Birdie Milano

A quirky story, that will have you laughing out loud and (probably) falling in love with a giant orange hamster.

Dylan is used to being dragged on rubbish holidays with his parents and younger brother. This summer he’s taken to a caravan park in Cornwall, and the only consolation is he can take his best friend Kayla. Nothing much happens at this park, but in his quest to have the holiday of a lifetime Dylan ends up causing chaos.

Upon arriving at their holiday home, Dylan develops an enormous crush on the boy in the van next-door. Unfortunately, this crush causes him untold pain…not helped by the fact that everywhere he goes he’s accosted by the park mascot, hamster Nibbles.

Of course, things don’t quite go to plan. There’s enough awful things happen to Dylan to leave him traumatised for life, but he bounces back from them all. He even ends up finding the boy of his dreams-though not where he was expecting!

Thanks to publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this in advance of publication.

‘The Impossible Vastness of Us’ – Samantha Young

India Maxwell hasn’t just moved across the country—she’s plummeted to the bottom rung of the social ladder. It’s taken years to cover the mess of her home life with a veneer of popularity. Now she’s living in one of Boston’s wealthiest neighborhoods with her mom’s fiancé and his daughter, Eloise. Thanks to her soon-to-be stepsister’s clique of friends, including Eloise’s gorgeous, arrogant boyfriend Finn, India feels like the one thing she hoped never to be seen as again: trash.

But India’s not alone in struggling to control the secrets of her past. Eloise and Finn, the school’s golden couple, aren’t all they seem to be. In fact, everyone’s life is infinitely more complex than it first appears. And as India grows closer to Finn and befriends Eloise, threatening the facades that hold them together, what’s left are truths that are brutal, beautiful, and big enough to change them forever…

I love it when a book delivers more than you’re expecting.

When India’s mother drops her bombshell, she’s unsure how to feel. With one action she’s gone from being a popular girl to a nobody on the social rung of her new school. India’s new stepfather has money, lots of it, and lives in an environment where your name and reputation is everything.

India’s journey in this novel is an interesting one. She slowly learns there’s more to people than they always want to present to the public, and gradually learns to trust herself.

There’s a lot in here that you need to discover as you read. The characters India meets are not without their flaws, but combined it makes for a pretty explosive read. There are some views expressed here that are never going to be okay – and they are necessary for the credibility of the characters/plot but it doesn’t make them any easier to read.

‘Clean’ – Juno Dawson

Clean. To be clean involves removing dirt. And, in this, there’s A LOT of dirt.

Due for release in April 2018, I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of this latest release from Juno Dawson. It brought back memories of the first time I read ‘Junk’ by Melvin Burgess, and I sincerely hope that this does not get ignored because people think teen readers can’t handle such topics.

We first meet our main character, Lexi, as she is passed out in her brother’s car on her way to a rehabilitation centre for heroin addiction. I’d read the opening some time ago, but it was just as disorientating and confusing this time around. Watching Lexi go through the first steps in her seventy day treatment is hard to read.

Dawson packs a serious punch here and we get a warts-and-all account of not just Lexi’s addiction but those with her in the centre. We relive some of the experiences that bring Lexi to this point and, though there were some alarming situations, there was no scare-mongering ‘just say no’ preaching.

What this novel conveyed so well was the deception that someone who is addicted might practise. Particularly on their sense of self. If you surround yourself with enablers, it’s easy to deny you have a problem.

Initially I did not think Lexi would be a character I felt much for. But, thankfully, she is not simply a shallow spoilt little rich girl. She, like a lot of the other characters we meet, is lost and needs help finding her place. As we learn more about Lexi it becomes easier to see beyond the persona she presents to the world.

There was a sense of knowingness to ‘Clean’. Sometimes the first attempt at rehabilitation is unsuccessful, but it doesn’t mean you should stop trying. There were moments of humour within this – which I wasn’t really expecting – and I found myself wanting to know more about some of the other characters Lexi meets. I also found myself really irritated by Lexi’s so-called friends and the ‘rich absent’ parents who seemed to be being held more than accountable for their childrens’ issues.

While it doesn’t give us all the answers, it certainly raises some interesting questions.

 

‘Only Child’ – Rhiannon Navin

After finishing this I was reminded of the cliché ‘out of the mouths of babes’…

Part of me wishes stories about school shootings were not such high-profile at the moment but, with recent events in America, it seems to be a problem that is not going away. This will not be a book for everyone. The topic is hard to read about, and there’s an element of earnestness to the message that doesn’t sit comfortably with me.

Our story begins with first grader Zach hiding with his teacher and classmates in the closet. He recounts the reactions of those around him as he listens to the repetitive pop-pop-pop sound that signals a gunman has entered the building.

From the outset we are placed in the middle of what must be a terrifying experience. For anyone. Zach’s youth and innocence mean we are seeing this through very different eyes and it’s hard to take. I sighed with relief as Zach and his classmates are escorted out of the building. This didn’t last long.

As Zach is collected by his mum we learn that his older brother, Andy, is missing. From this point onwards the pain level is hiked up.

Sadly, Andy is one of the victims. Through Zach’s eyes we watch how this event shatters and tears apart the family.

Zach has, at times, a voice just that little too adult and knowing. I can’t picture many six/seven year olds articulating some of their thoughts in the way he does. However, his observations of the family and those around them as they exist in the months afterwards are telling.

The child-narrator means we miss some of the details we’d like to know. Much of what Zach experiences is either directly related to him or gleaned from half-heard conversations. But what we get is enough.

By the end of the novel – perhaps because it would be simply too depressing otherwise – we are given signs that things may settle down with the family. There is hope.

Unfortunately, the question of the shooter, how he has access to the guns and how steps could be taken to prevent such events happening are never explored. They can’t feasibly be in this (probably not questions a seven year old would dwell on/even raise unless repeating things said around them), but it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to my publication. I’m sure readers’ “prayers and thoughts” will be with all the characters in this fictional story – as they are every time another school shooting takes place – but, ultimately, that changes nothing.

‘They Both Die at the End’ – Adam Silvera

In this world we have Death-Cast. On the day you are going to die you receive a call letting you know. No details are shared, but this call gives you the chance to spend your last day as you see fit.

On September 5th, a little after midnight, both Rufus and Mateo, our protagonists, receive the call. Very different characters, but through the Last Friends app they end up meeting. Their last day together is a poignant set of experiences as each confronts things that scare them/takes steps to make their last day one to be remembered.

Starting the novel knowing that we will lose our main characters at the end gave everything a rather melancholic feel. Yet the things they spend their time doing – and the bond they forge – was pretty inspiring. As Rufus says towards the end ‘Maybe it’s better to have gotten it right and been happy for one day instead of living a lifetime of wrongs’.

Silvera gets it so right here…

‘The Taste of Blue Light’ – Lydia Ruffles

 

Since I blacked out, the slightest thing seems to aggravate my brain and fill it with fire’

These are the things Lux knows:
She is an Artist.
She is lucky.
She is broken.

These are the things she doesn’t know:
What happened over the summer.
Why she ended up in hospital.
Why her memories are etched in red.

‘The nightmares tend to linger long after your screams have woken you up …’

Desperate to uncover the truth, Lux’s time is running out. If she cannot piece together the events of the summer and regain control of her fractured mind, she will be taken away from everything and everyone she holds dear.

If her dreams don’t swallow her first.

There’s no doubt about it that this contemporary YA read – due to be published in early February 2018 – packs a powerful punch.

Initially, Lux was not a character to feel empathy with. Her unwillingness to engage with things and people made her hard to care about. The environment in which she cloisters herself is alien to many of us.

Yet as the story progressed I found myself falling under a spell. Desperate to know what happened, we do get answers, and they are far more topical than we might expect. All along I had an idea in which way the book was heading (which wouldn’t have been awful), but Ruffles goes for something much bolder and braver…and it pays off.

This is one book I feel it’s best to know little about before reading. It is not immediately seeking to attract your attention, but it sneaks up on you. Once I’d closed the pages I was desperate to read it again.

‘The Nowhere Girls’ – Amy Reed

At a time when we can easily see some of the awful comments attributed to one of the most powerful men in the United States revealing his derogatory attitude to women and when the #MeToo campaign is sharing more and more disturbing stories of how women are treated, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is one of those books that everyone should be encouraged to engage with.

The Nowhere Girls. A group of young women, from all spheres of life, who come together to try to combat the toxic culture in their hometown.

New girl Grace is unsure how to fit in. As the only child of devout Christians their life has been in upheaval as their old church community was resistant to having Grace’s mum as a pastor. She wants to stand for something, but is so unsure of herself at the start of the novel. Grace finds herself making a rather unusual choice of friends at her new school, and when she learns that the girl who used to live in her home was forced to leave school after accusing three star footballers of rape she is determined to make a stand.

Along with Grace we are told the story from the points of view of Rosina and Erin. Each have their own concerns that impact on their lives, but their voices were pretty authentic. I was particularly fond of Erin who was a character you couldn’t help but root for.

As the Nowhere Girls movement gathers force we see the impact it has on some of the key players in perpetuating this slut-shaming culture. Small steps initially, but there is a hint of light at the end of the tunnel.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this relatively happy ending would not happen in real-life. I was repulsed by some of the characters (intentionally I think) and really irritated by the complacent and, at times, combative attitudes of those who have the power to tackle such institutional sexism.

With explicit scenes featuring sexual violence this will not be an easy read, but it’s a sadly necessary one. My biggest gripe with this was the relentlessly happy ending that, for me, belies the battle that many in such a situation will face. However, that doesn’t detract from the need for novels such as this to encourage young men and women to consider how they can truly make a difference.

‘Piecing Me Together’ – Renée Watson

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.

In the sense that it explored race/identity it reminded me of The Hate U Give, but this focused also on our narrator, Jade, learning about who she was and how to feel comfortable in her skin.

A scholarship to a predominantly white school leads to our narrator feeling stuck in the middle. Too black for school; too white for home. When she’s signed up to participate in a mentoring program she starts a pretty tough process learning about what’s important to her.

Lots of questions raised about identity and the role race plays in our lives, and it was done in such a way that I think is pretty relatable on some level.

‘Time Bomb’ – Joelle Charbonneau

A story about trying to find your place, and working out just how far you’ll go to make people accept you for who you are.

This is a tense read, which will thrill and captivate readers. With a cast of six key characters there is someone you are likely to identify with.

Charbonneau starts by introducing our cast. We get to see them all before the action starts: Diana (the senator’s daughter/perfect student); new girl, Cas (about to start a new school after being bullied); Palestinian-American Rashid (conflicted about his place in society); class nobody Z (who has been coping with his mother’s death and is about to be evicted at the start of the novel); Frankie, star football player and Tad, the mixed-race gay student who is a little closer to Frankie than people realise. They each have their dark secret and issues that impact on their daily lives. They each are desperate to be recognised for who they really are. But only one of them is desperate enough to cause chaos at their school.

While it seems slow and rather cumbersome to introduce us to so many characters and switch between them throughout the novel, it’s a useful tactic to keep us guessing about just who has done what and where it will end up.

A bit like some of those 80s movies the group who seem to have little in common end up stuck together when a series of bombs hit their school. They have to work together to try and survive, and to determine just how desperate each of them is to make their mark.

It was quickly apparent who was likely to be responsible for the events, but this was a tense read as we watch the teenagers struggle with themselves and their situation. It doesn’t end happily for everyone, but for those who do survive we get a flash of how it impacts on them.

‘The Truth and Lies of Ella Black’ – Emily Barr

I’ve loved the other books by Emily Barr that I’ve read, but this didn’t quite work as I’d hoped.

The premise sounds great.

Seventeen year old Ella has a perfect life. There’s hints of a dysfunctional personality when she refers to herself as Bella (Bad Ella, the one who says what she really thinks) and some details that are given to make more credible what is revealed later. One day she is taken out of school and whisked off to Rio by her parents. There she makes some pretty startling discoveries, and it launches a rather incredible series of events.

Ella seemed a little caricatured initially, and this split personality is part-explained later but it doesn’t really fit together. Once in Rio she doesn’t really push for answers, being more content to pursue the hot American staying in her hotel. Of course, they fall in love and he supports her in spite of the kind of chaos that would have most people running a mile! There’s a few near misses, but nothing too awful happens and Ella just happens to bump into kind-hearted characters who all help her out.

I can’t understand why so many reviewers have said they didn’t finish this, but it isn’t a particularly believable story and there isn’t enough detail about the characters of most interest to me.

Still, thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication.