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‘Eight Rivers of Shadow’ – Leo Hunt

The second in the series picks up some time after ’13 Days of Midnight’. Luke is now with Elza, and is doing his best to fit in (harder now he’s not popular).

When a foreign exchange student – Ash – appears, she eventually asks for Luke’s help in saving her twin sister. It’s quickly clear that Ash knows a lot more about necromancy than Luke does, and yet he doubts she can help him.

Luke has to make some difficult decisions, and he ends up relying on the help of people/spirits that he never wanted to see again.

Though I enjoyed the first novel, this was a real step-up. I loved the blend of humour and terrifying events, and really felt engaged with this story.

This is definitely a grower, and I’m curious to see where this goes in the next of the series.

‘Matched’ – Ally Condie

In this series we see a society where everything is organised for you in an attempt to keep things effective. What you eat, where you live and work, who you marry and even when you die is organised for you. While this brings security, for me it felt claustrophobic and intensely stifling.

The majority of people who live around Cassia and her family accept these interventions in their lives without question. Some cannot reconcile themselves to a world without choice, but for our narrator this realisation is a long time coming!

Cassia has always been someone who follows the rules. She does what she is supposed to and doesn’t question the things that don’t feel quite right. Cassia has known Xander a long time, and they are good friends, so she is pleased when they are Matched (yes, they even sort your relationships for you). However, she then sees a brief glimpse of a second face – another person she knows – and this rouses her curiosity. Who is to say which of the two would be the better match? Why can’t she decide for herself?

What follows was a rather typical story of someone questioning the status quo. Cassia wants to rebel, but is worried about breaking out from the confines she lives within. The love triangle doesn’t really bother anyone, since Cassia can’t make her mind up what she wants for the majority of the novel. It felt like events were rather dragged out on occasion. I would have liked to know more of the past and how this society came into being.

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the book, but I felt it could have been a lot more powerful.

‘The Language of Dying’ – Sarah Pinborough

From the opening pages it is clear that we are watching the most intimate moments in someone’s life in these pages.

Our unnamed narrator is at the bedside of her dying father. This novel is basically her observations of the last days of her father’s life, and her recollections of the past when he was a more vibrant figure.

The narrator is the middle of five children, and we learn that she has moved in with her father after both their respective marriages have failed. In these last days we see the four siblings come to the house, and learn a little more of their past. In the dark moments of watching her father the narrator lays bare the failings in their relationships.

The style of writing is quite unemotional. There’s a sense of detachment to the writing as we’re told of the events that signal the end of a life, and the harrowing events that have affected this family over time.

This is a short novella, but it was compelling reading. I was both shocked and confused by the ending, for reasons that will be obvious when you read.
While it would be nice to not have to confront this experience, it was a valuable read.

‘Vampire Academy’ series – Richelle Mead

Vampire Academy #1

This is the first in a series of six books. I’m a sucker for a vampire story (Dracula has a lot to answer for), and I was curious to see whether this lived up to the hype.

In this first novel we are introduced to the Moroi vampire princess, Lissa, and her dhampir half-vampire friend, Rose. They have been on the run from the Vampire Academy, convinced their lives are in danger. Early on in the novel the girls are found and returned to the Academy to continue their studies.

From the start, the bond between these two is clear. Rose certainly has plenty of attitude, but she acts with good intentions and you can’t help but feel respect for her determination to protect her friend. Lissa irritated me as she is suffering, and shuts people out – with disastrous consequences.

Inevitably – oh, I’m so predictable – I developed something of a book crush on Dimitri, the guardian put in charge of training Rose. If you read it, you’ll understand why.

While this is a curious mix of more traditional vampire elements and modern high-school story, it works and certainly ends on a high note.

‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ – Morgan Matson

Being a teenager can be awkward at times, particularly so when you’re best friends with someone who just seems to sail through life with no problems. That, at least, is how Emily feels prior to the summer that this novel is set.

We don’t get answers to this particular mystery until very near the end of the novel, but at the start of the summer Sloane, Emily’s best friend, has disappeared. Her family home is empty and nobody has any idea where she has gone. All Emily is left with is a letter, comprising a list of thirteen things that Sloane asks Emily to complete before finding her.

Rather than asking people what has happened to Sloane, Emily takes it upon herself to keep quiet about everything and try to work her way through the list of challenges. Some are harder than others – but they all push Emily’s boundaries in some way, forcing her to confront her fears and develop her own sense of self.

Along the way, Emily learns quite a lot about herself and her best friend. She also finds new friends, and the somewhat inevitable romance. While this didn’t really have me full of awe, it was a pleasant enough read and I can imagine it striking a chord with more than one or two readers.

‘The Next Together’ – Lauren James

The moment I saw the cover I knew this would be heavy on the romance (which is not a genre I’m overly fond of), but once I’d read the blurb I couldn’t wait to get started!

Katherine and Matthew are born over and over again. Each time they are born, they meet and fall in love. Something momentous takes place around them, and they die. Until the next time.

While Matthew and Katherine seem to have vague recollections of their shared histories, we are treated to seeing them interact in four very different periods in time. In 1745, they are involved in the Carlisle Uprising. In 1845, Matthew is a journalist sent to report on the conditions the soldiers fighting in the Crimea are experiencing. In 2019 – our closest future – they are scientists accused of terrorism and trying to manufacture a biological weapon. In 2039, they are lab partners who stumble across a link between themselves and them in the past (try not to think too much about the logistics) and they end up on the run.

Curiously, there is a very real sense of the characters being slightly different each time and this brought each period to life in a way that was fascinating. For me, the real pull was the little excerpts of what look like coding interspersed throughout the text which heavily suggest that someone/something is actually directly in charge of these characters’ experiences. The idea that they are being manipulated for some other purpose is intriguing, and there are definite hints that we will get some answers – and, no doubt, some new questions – in the sequel, due out in October 2016.

‘Everything I Don’t Remember’ – Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Winner of the 2015 August Prize, this novel by Khemiri is a definite puzzle. Lauded by booksellers/critics, when I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley I was struck by the number of reviewers who commented on the style as being similar to a podcast called Serial. Thanks to Google I was able to glean some information about this podcast – and it sounds like something worth checking out – but I did wonder whether there would be something lost in translation.

Perhaps my initial hesitation coloured my reading, but I found it quite hard to settle into reading this. Told in a very fragmented way, it took me a long time to get a handle on the voices of the respective characters and to work out how they were related to Samuel.

We are told that Samuel has died in a car crash, and we do not know if it was an accident or suicide. An unnamed writer decides to interview Samuel’s friends and family members in order to try and find out more about who Samuel was and what happened to him.

Even after finishing the novel I felt I didn’t know much about Samuel. Frustratingly, we got no definitive answer to the question posed and I never felt that I gained a clear perspective of how the writer linked to the object of the investigation. While I can recognise its literary quality, it didn’t have quite the emotional pull for me that means I want to encourage everyone to read it.

‘The Death House’ – Sarah Pinborough

Toby is part of a group of children who have tested ‘Defective’. They are isolated on a remote island and live in what is known as the Death House. The children who live there are constantly monitored by very creepy nursing staff, and taken to the sanatorium if sickness is suspected. Nobody ever returns.

We are never told the exact nature of this illness, how it came about or why it is such a threat. The world setting is also quite vague – but the Death House and surrounding area are a fully contained setting. Sometimes answers are a good thing, and I was curious to know more about how the world as it is described here came into existence.

All the characters cope with their enforced isolation and imminent deaths in different ways. Some are angry, some retreat into themselves and others seek solace in the nightly sleeping tablets that the children are given. When new arrival Clara comes to the Death House, however, patterns are disrupted and she quietly brings about a sense of wanting to enjoy the life you have rather than dwelling on the one you had.

While the lack of background detail was a little infuriating, I felt the shifting relationships between the characters was well-depicted and I didn’t even feel that the romance between two of the characters was out of place, as it allowed us to gain more of a sense of who they were.

The novel doesn’t shy away from some complex ideas, and the sinister setting really contrasted well with the joyful outlook that Clara brings to the novel. The ending was not what I wanted at all, but it was poignant and will certainly encourage readers to question what’s important to them.

‘Because You’ll Never Meet Me’ – Leah Thomas

In this debut novel, Thomas takes on some pretty challenging ideas. Some elements work better than others, if I’m being truthful, but this is certainly an exciting author.

This is what we’re told:

Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.

At times this reads like a foray into science-fiction, but I think it will have more appeal to fans of John Green. It is very much character-driven and the choice to create these two characters through their letters to one another is a brave one. It made the pace feel a little slow initially, but it does give us opportunity to learn their history without feeling over-burdened.

As we come to learn more about the boys and their history we cannot fail to find their allure. These are quirky characters, but they have a searing honesty that is refreshing to read.

‘And I Darken’ – Kiersten White

I always come to wish with this kind of thing that I’d waited until the trilogy was out in full so that I didn’t have to suffer the agonising wait for the next part. When I saw this available on NetGalley I couldn’t resist…I’ve done it again!

Lada Dragwyla and her brother, Radu, are abandoned by their father Vlad and sent from their home of Wallachia to be raised in the Ottoman courts. Radu comes to love and cherish this alternative life, but Lada resents her position and is determined to get her revenge eventually.

From the moment of her birth, Lada is fierce. She defies all expectations for a young girl, and her father encourages this. However, it’s not enough. Vlad is a weak ruler and abandons his own children for his own political game.

There’s so much I could say about this sprawling epic, but I’m wary of giving anything away and ruining the experience for those who read it. It’s enough to say that I quickly became immersed in this world and was desperate to find out more about the rather toxic triangle that is formed between the siblings and Mehmed, the sultan’s son.

The political background to the story is fascinating, and even for someone who knows very little about this period in history there was plenty to keep me satisfied. At the fore was the emotional investment that I felt in these characters, but I genuinely am excited to see where this goes next.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy.