Fiction – Page 6 – My Good Reads

‘The Ex Hex’ – Erin Sterling

At the age of nineteen Vivienne falls hard for Rhys, and is devastated when he tells her that his father expects him to marry someone of his choosing. Though she is a witch, she believes she has no powers and is amused by the curse she places on her ex.

Unfortunately, years later Rhys has to return to the town to carry out part of some ritual. Upon his arrival it’s clear that the strange accidents taking place around him are not something he has experienced before. The curse seems to have worked, but only if he’s in the town where Vivienne lives.

What follows is a rather mixed bag. They have to work together to defeat the curse, and along the way be honest about their feelings. We watch their attempts, some of which work better than others.

This was a romance with a little extra, but I’d hope that this element could be more developed.

‘How to Fake it in Hollywood’ – Ava Wilder

Two Hollywood actors – one TV fodder and one A-list – have their reasons for needing their career kickstarted, so when their publicist comes up with the plan for them to fake-date they’re willing to go along with it. What neither Grey nor Ethan realise is that this will be the start of something very special…

From the outset it’s clear these two are going to hit it off. However, this was no lightweight romcom…there’s plenty of baggage on both sides and a fair amount of angst to work through.

I enjoyed the verbal sparring between these two. There was chemistry between them, but the best moments came when they were working through things. There’s a fairly big cast of additional characters, some of whom were discarded once their part was played, and I do feel that some of the bigger issues being faced by these two were rather overlooked.

All in all, an entertaining read that delivered what it promised.

‘Learning to Swim’ – Clare Chambers

Families are a funny thing. You never know what goes on behind closed doors, and never has this been more true than in the story of Abigail Jex (née Onions) and her memories of her childhood friend Frances Radley.

Abigail, when we meet her, is a cellist in an established orchestra and it is not until she attends an after show party and is introduced to Marcus Radley that we start to get a glimpse into the life of this young woman. When she was younger, Abigail was reserved and had few friends. An only child she was serious and had little in common with her peers. Then we are told of her fledgling friendship with the new girl, Frances.

Before we know it Abigail has found herself taken under the wing of this family. She is in awe of Frances’ brother, Marcus (known only as Rad), and finds herself subsumed into the daily lives of the Radley family. As an honorary member of the family she is privy to much of their daily life, but some of the intricacies are lost on her.

While we get to glimpse this family from the outside, we also see into the life of Abigail and her family. Nothing is quite what eleven year old Abigail realised, and we watch as she slowly becomes aware of the shifting nature of her relationships. There are moments of beauty as Abigail observes these colourful characters, never quite realising the significance of some of her interactions. As she grows up and realises how fragile some of these relationships are we watch Abigail mature. The focus really is on Abigail’s shifting relationship to those around her, and though the plot was a little rushed towards the end it had a hopeful quality to it that I found quite endearing.

‘Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone’ – Benjamin Stevenson

As soon as I saw the title while bookstore browsing, I was intrigued. This is the kind of book that won’t necessarily be one I’ll rave about but it was darkly humorous and cleverly put together.

The story itself focuses on a decades-old crime and a rather common situation. However, when we begin it’s fair to say that the links between this past crime and the present are not apparent.

Ernest Cunningham is something of a fan of crime books. He has got used to life as one of the Cunninghams, a family that have had their share of hard luck. However, when we’re told that every member of the family has killed someone I couldn’t help but wonder what we were about to get. The truth is not something you’d easily come to, so it’s best to sit back and enjoy the ride.

From the moment we know Erin was caught up in a shooting and that he is sitting on several hundred thousand dollars for his brother I really couldn’t have guessed where this would end up. As the bodies pile up and we start to learn exactly who the mysterious body at this holiday resort is, I was desperate to learn exactly what had happened.

‘Going Dark’ – Melissa de la Cruz

Going Dark begins with Josh Reuter returning from his trip to Rome without his girlfriend, influencer Amelia Ashley. This might seem innocuous…but they argued before Josh left Rome and nobody has heard from Amelia since.
When Josh’s missing suitcase is returned, the police discover Amelia’s blood on a T-shirt inside. Suddenly Josh has gone from concerned boyfriend to suspect in a missing person’s case. He seems stunned by this twist in events, but there’s niggles of doubt from those around him.

Just as we have the shock news of Amelia’s blood revealed, we then shift viewpoints and start to learn a little more about Amelia. She is not who we thought…and sometimes going dark may be done for a very specific reason.

It was at this point that things become a little less predictable. While the story itself hinted at a darker and much more interesting focus – the way the media report on missing person’s cases and how easy it is for money to buy you anonymity – this shift in events made a tenser read than that which I originally thought we were in for.

The premise for this story really was absorbing, and it might have been nice to have some elements examined in greater depth. However, this was a tense and neatly plotted read, if a little predictable.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this before publication.

‘The Wilderness Retreat’ – Jennifer Moore

The Wilderness Retreat takes place in a remote Swedish setting. Bella is treated to a luxury stay at the retreat by her sister to help her cope with the sense of loss after dropping her teenage son off at university. We sense her unease from the outset, and as she is introduced to the other guests it appears there are tensions between them. When the bombshell of another guest is dropped on the group, we are privy to the fact that this is the father of Bella’s child.

Watching Bella unravel was a rather slow process. The first half of the book focused on introducing the characters and creating a general sense of unease. Slowly, we are told of other events that are throwing Bella off her stride but it’s hard to tell whether these are genuine threats or Bella’s own fears manifesting in other ways.

As things start to build up we can sense there’s more to this story. However, at this point things felt clunky and somewhat manufactured. When we are finally told the truth of what’s happening then it becomes a lot more obvious just how heavy-handed some of these hints were. This was a book that had promise, but which (for me at least) ultimately failed to deliver.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication.

‘Pumpkinheads’ – Rainbow Rowell

I’m very aware that as someone who doesn’t read graphic novels, I may be missing something here. Certainly, reviews of this are glowing…so perhaps I’m just not quite the right reader for this book right now.

The story focuses on Deja and Josiah, friends who spend every Halloween working in the same pumpkin patch. For the last three years Josiah has had a crush on the girl who works in the fudge shop, but he’s never spoken to her. On their last night, Deja gets it into her head that she will help Josiah to get his girl.

We follow them round the pumpkin patch as they try to find the mystery girl. What becomes clear very early on is that these two are great together…so I wonder why it takes so long for there to be any acknowledgment of their evident mutual attraction.

I liked the colour scheme for this and the pictures had a certain cuteness to them, but the whole thing just felt a little twee. The characters could have made things a whole lot easier for themselves by actually having a conversation. On the whole, this won’t be enough to convince me that graphic novels are the way to go.

‘This Time Tomorrow’ – Emma Straub

My third book of the new year, and this was much more like it!

This Time Tomorrow has forty year old Alice as its protagonist. She doesn’t feel as if she has done much with her life, and regrets not having her life sorted in the way she envisaged it being. She misses her father – the eccentric novelist who wrote a celebrated novel about time travel – and with him asleep in a hospital bed Alice is not sure if she will ever get the chance to speak with him again.

Context is everything, and at the heart of the novel is Alice’s changing relationship with her father. So it is not really surprising when events take place that result in Alice travelling back in time to the morning of her sixteenth birthday.

Her initial return to the past is explored in great detail, and it was fascinating to see Alice explore the various strands of her life and to make little changes to see how this might impact on her life in the present. However, we soon learn that Alice will have the ability to return to this day when she chooses – as long as the initial conditions are met – and this brings its own problems.

As Alice tinkers with the details of her life/lives, she has to work out which elements are the things she wants and which she would be happy to lose. While it might have been interesting to see these attempts in more detail, the number of times Alice clearly tried this was emphasised by the scant details given about each occasion. Her inability to alter the one thing that she clearly wanted to change was poignant, and led to an emotional resolution.

This Time Tomorrow is certainly a book that I would recommend to others, though I think it will be more satisfying to readers who have already had to start thinking about some of the issues raised within its pages.

‘Here’s to Us’ – Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

I feel awful as I loved book one so much, and this just felt like overkill.

Ben and Arthur are not together, they each have new boyfriends (of sorts) and they are moving on with things…and then events conspire to have both of them back in New York for the summer. They meet up to show how much they’ve moved on – and it’s painfully clear that they haven’t at all.

The majority of the book sets them up on a number of double dates or meet-ups with new partners and friends, but each occasion offers a reminder of their past in some way. Nobody calls them out on it, but it’s pretty obvious that each is holding something back because they haven’t quite got over their past.

For most of the book it felt like I was reading a collection of scenes rather than a cohesive narrative. Things shift into predictable territory near the end, and I’m afraid that I found myself thankful that it would all draw to a close soon. Much as I wanted to love this, I couldn’t help but feel this book stemmed from a desire to do-over decisions made in the past, which were made for a reason. Sometimes it’s best not to look back!

‘Yellowface’ – R.F. Kuang

Though I have a number of books by Kuang on my TBR pile, this seemed an interesting one to start off my 2023 reading with. Yellowface is a book that explores the publishing industry and its intricacies. I’m not sure how realistic it is, but this definitely seems to be a book written by someone who has, perhaps, had to grapple with some of the dilemmas posed here.

Our main character, Juniper Song Hayward, has always wanted to be a writer. She has been published, but has had nothing like the success of her friend Athena Liu. There seems to be some professional jealousy on Juniper’s side but because Athena dies early on, we never really get to see anyone else’s view.

When Athena suffers her freak accident, Juniper is with her. She tries to save her, to no avail, but she also leaves Athena’s apartment with a first draft of a manuscript for her latest novel. For reasons that are never satisfactorily explained, Juniper uses the draft and rewrites elements of it, passing it off as her own. It seems she’ll get away with it…at least at first.

The publication of Juniper’s latest novel causes problems. Rumours of plagiarism follow her, but more damning is the fact that a white woman has written about something she has no experience of.

Once we enter into the territory of authorship and narrative voice, I honestly found myself feeling as if everyone else was in on a joke that I hadn’t quite understood. The narrative became acutely aware of how it would be perceived and I was never sure what was the writer’s voice/commentary on the issues and what was the view of the character. By the end it felt as if the plot was tying itself in knots as it tried to set up something far cleverer than was needed for the occasion.

From the reviews of Kuang’s other novels I understand this is something of a departure for her. In some ways that’s good because this didn’t quite hit the mark for me, and I had been really looking forward to reading Babel. I might opt for something in between, though I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this prior to publication.