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Such Charming Liars by Karen M McManus - Review

Wednesday, February 5, 2025


I recently realised that I have been out of the loop on what Young Adult literature there is around at the moment. So I made a concerted effort to look in a couple of bookshops. And honestly, I was quite disappointed. It felt like a lot of the books were the same stuff that has been hanging around in YA sections for like ten years. And that's a lot of years when the target audience of these books are only fifteen years old. It's sad really that nothing new and spectacular seems to be coming out. So I decided to have a look at my local library, which isn't always brilliant, but I hoped it would be a bit better. And it was! I really need to look at the big library in the middle of Barnsley, so I'll try to do that too. But I was happy with the selection in my local library. I picked up three books, including this one, because I've read everything else by Karen M McManus but this from last year had bypassed me. 

I liked this one as much as I've liked her other ones, so that's good. I'm glad she is out there writing new contemporary YA even if no one else is. 

So, there are two protagonists of the book, and sometimes I felt like it switched oddly, but that's one of my only criticisms of the book. The first one is Kat. She's sixteen and she lives with her mother, Jamie, and her found family, Gem, who is like her grandma, and Gem's daughter, Morgan, who is the same age as Jamie. Gem is a jewel thief. She runs a front, a cleaning company called Spotless. Jamie works for her. After a bad time with Kat's dad, Cormac, when Kat was little, Jamie ran away with her and eventually met Gem. But she is trying to go straight. She is going to do one last heist; she is going to swap the ruby necklace of a woman called Annalise Sutherland with a fake, and use the money to set herself and Kat up for good. 

Meanwhile, Liam is seventeen, and after the traumatic death of his mother a few months ago, he has been living with his dad, Luke. His parents have been divorced since he was tiny, and he has never been close to his dad. But now he has no choice. Luke is a conman - he has been leading women on on dating sites and Liam has been trying to stop him and has told women what he's up to. Luke has been dating Annalise and has been playing the doting father to try to win her over. Liam isn't convinced at all. But then Annalise's dad, patriarch Ross Sutherland, is turning eighty, and there's a big party planned on his compound. He's very rich and it's obvious that Luke just wants in on the family money. But he and Liam are invited to the party so they head off together. 

Jamie has got a job as staff for the party, so she heads off. But Kat schemes to go with her. Jamie isn't happy but there's not much she can do about it. On the way to the party they break down, and are stopped on the side of the road when Liam and Luke turn up. 

And it turns out they already know each other. When Kat was four and Liam was five, Jamie and Luke got married in Vegas. They were married for just forty eight hours and in that time Kat and Liam went missing and there was a whole panic before they were found by Gem (which is why Jamie got involved with Gem in the first place). Jamie has never forgiven him and so the reunion by the side of the road isn't a happy one. Liam and Kat remember each other though. 

So then they're all on the compound and many things happen - I couldn't even include them all. Kat ends up having to trust Liam without really knowing him. They both get friendly with the Sutherland grandson, Augustus. The whole family is a mess - Augustus' father is an alcoholic and has been in and out of rehab, and everyone else is basically insufferable. Jamie is trying to pull off the heist by swapping Annalise's necklace, but everyone else is scheming too.

This is a really good fun heist novel with added YA - Kat and Liam are both excellent characters and it's easy to feel sympathy for both of them as well as liking them. I did find the book dragged in a couple of places and could have done with a tiny edit, but I really liked the twists. I'm giving it five out of five. 

Found by Erin Kinsley - Review

Monday, February 3, 2025


I got this book in a sale that I bought seventeen books in but which only cost me £63! So I got some bargains. And I am hoping to make my way through this pile pretty soon. Let's see! I picked this up in the middle of January. I found it an odd book and I looked on Goodreads to see what criticisms people had. And while I basically enjoyed the story, I did think that some of the criticisms I read were totally valid. I'll get to that. 

So Evan is eleven years old and he goes missing one day after school. He has been at sports practice with his best mate, Stewie, and the lads were two of the last people in school. They walked out, went into the corner shop, and said goodbye at the bus stop. Evan wasn't seen again. DI Naylor - who is a likeable detective, I would read more books about her - and her colleagues tried their hardest to find him, but the trail was pretty cold. His parents, Claire and Matthew, are obviously devastated, as are his paternal grandparents, Joe and Doris (I think that's their names...) who live in Yorkshire. Claire and Matthew's marriage starts to fall apart; she is drinking too much. DI Naylor and co have to start looking at other cases. 

Then, months later, a man stops at a petrol station somewhere near Pontefract for petrol, and he realises there are sounds coming from the boot of a car. He confronts the driver and his passenger, and they take off. Police come and in the boot of the car they find Evan. 

He is alive, alright, but obviously traumatised. When he is returned to his parents, he is basically mute. He can't speak to the police about what he went through so they're a bit stuck on trying to catch the people who took him. Evan ends up staying with his grandparents a lot, and begins to come back to himself. 

The police get some breaks and end up on a massive chase looking for huge swathes of paedophiles. I quite like how it unravelled and how an ex colleague of Naylor's does some investigating for her. I also liked that the book was about the emotions of being a victim of a crime as well as the actualities of it. I liked Naylor and would read a series about her. 

However, I did see that people have compared this book to those by Cara Hunter and somehow I just can't agree, it's not as compelling as those at all. I also read that some people were let down by the outcome when the identities of the perpetrators aren't given much space and I do sort of get that, but I also think that they're kind of irrelevant to the rest of the story. The point is about the family and the victim. 

I'm giving this four out of five though, although it is really more of a 3.5. But I did like Erin Kinsley and I've got some more books of hers from the library to read soon. 


The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood - Review

Friday, January 31, 2025


This book was on my wish list, although I can't remember why, but one of my Secret Santas sent me it for Christmas and I was pleased to get it and be reminded that I wanted to read it! I picked it up at the beginning of January which I realise is a common refrain at the moment because I am desperately trying to read all my Christmas books. It's a noble effort - let's see if I manage it this year when I never normally do. 

So this book has two time periods, now and twenty five years ago. Twenty five years ago there are two eleven year old girls. One of them, Bel, is from a well to do family, being brought up in luxury by her mum and stepdad. She has a little sister. They have horses, etc, all of that. The other girl, Jade, is from a rough family. Her dad owns a pig farm. She has several siblings, some of whom are petty criminals. The two girls do not know each other, but on one hot summer day they meet up while bored and by the end of the day they are charged with the murder of a little girl, Chloe. She ends up left with them and over the course of flashbacks dotted throughout the book we read what happened to her. 

In the now period, the two girls are both rehabilitated and released from prison. They are each thirty six years old and obviously do not know where the other is or what happened to her. Kirsty is a journalist living in London. She has two children, Sophie and Luke. Her husband is currently unemployed so that is putting a strain on the relationship while Kirsty is trying to keep the family afloat. Kirsty is doing really well in life but obviously she keeps her secret from everyone in her life. 

Meanwhile Amber lives in Kent. She is a cleaner at a funfair. It's a dull job but she's manager and she's good at it and takes pride in her work. She lives with Vic, who works on the amusements at the fair. He's very good looking and a bit of a flash boy; all the girls fancy him and Amber isn't really sure why he's with her. Their house is well cared for and loved. Amber's colleague, Jackie, moves in with the two of them because she's basically being stalked by her ex, who is creepy. But Amber starts to distrust Jackie. 

Then Amber finds a dead body in the house of mirrors at the funfair, which is currently out of bounds. Police make connections with the murders of some young women previously, and begin to think they have a serial strangler on their hands. Kirsty, in her job as a journalist, ends up travelling to Kent to report on the story. She meets Amber and recognises her, making her tumble back twenty five years to that fateful day. But then someone else clearly knows who both women are, and their lives are in danger. 

To begin with it's not clear which girl is which, which I found interesting and intriguing. I am interested in ideas around justice and rehabilitation so I found that part interesting too. Both girls were let down by their caretakers and their childhoods, and it is obvious that Chloe's death wasn't premeditated in any way. Both women are strong survivors and it's hard to not root for the both of them. 

I did find there was a lot of fatphobia when describing some characters, which I found unnecessary and unnecessarily cruel. It seemed like lazy writing. I also think there were a few inconsistencies in the plot which should have been caught. One of them was that Chloe was six at the beginning but then four? It annoyed me. 

But overall I did like the book and am giving it four out of five. It is very intriguing and kept me reading. 

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - Review

Wednesday, January 29, 2025



I can't even remember where I first heard about this book, but it was a while ago, and I feel like a lot of the bookstagrammers I follow have read it. I added it to my wishlist ages ago and one of my Secret Santas this year sent it to me. I'm really glad they picked it for me; I do keep my wishlist up to date and I'm glad I left this on it for so long because I really enjoyed it and liked reading it. I would read something else by the same author, for sure. 

So Keiko is thirty six years old and she lives by herself in a studio apartment. She works in a convenience store. She has worked there since she was eighteen. She really likes the routine of it, she likes knowing what she should be doing, she likes working out what the weather will mean for what they will sell. She has known since childhood that she is 'strange', so she learns social mores and ways of being from her coworkers. A lot of them are young, student types, and those her age tend to be management. Her parents wish she would get a 'real' job or at least settle down, but she's happy in her lane. 

She is close to her sister, who has just had a baby, and some of her sister's friends. One day she mentions a coworker, Shiraha, to them, and they are overjoyed for her, thinking she's finally met someone. Shiraha needs somewhere to stay after getting fired, and so Keiko invites him to stay with her. Keiko's life is changed but not necessarily for the better... 

I think Keiko is definitely autistic, and I think someone needs to diagnose her maybe and get her some support. I read a negative review of this book which said it was poking fun at autistic people but I really don't agree with that at all. I think Keiko is unapologetically herself and gets even more comfortable with that towards the end of the book. There's a lot about society's expectations of her as a woman nearing forty but I think it's fair to say that she just doesn't care. She's happy with her life and that's fine

I'm giving this four out five. I liked it a lot and would recommend it. 

Giving Up the Ghost by Hilary Mantel - Review

Monday, January 27, 2025


We've been packing up some of my books recently and I came across this, Hilary Mantel's autobiography. Now I've never actually read any of her novels, Tudor or otherwise, but of course I know of her, and this must have intrigued me enough to pick it up in a charity shop or something. My interest was piqued again so I read it.

And it is marvellous! It is such a good memoir and I would recommend it whether you're a fan of hers or not. A lot of it is given over to her childhood in Hadfield in Derbyshire, a place that I sometimes drive through and know. I didn't realise she was northern! Her family was a bit complicated with aunts and grandparents nearby; the young Helen split her time between a few houses. Her mother started an affair with a man called Jack and he lived in their house with both parents still there. He eventually moved the family out to Cheshire and Hilary never saw her father again. 

There's also a lot given to her second home in Norfolk and how it was a place of refuge for her for quite a long time. She was married young, and later divorced and then remarried the same man. She talks about her university life and the poverty that she and her husband had to face while young and it was a very good portrayal of humdrum life in the 1970s. I liked the stuff around the second home. Hilary seemed to feel almost guilty that she had made enough money to be able to do this. 

But the part of the memoir that resonated the most for me was Hilary's telling of her struggle with endometriosis. It is something that I myself have suffered with and am only 'cured' now thanks to a hormonal IUD. Endo has left me in pain a lot and disabled by it, and it means I wasn't able to have kids. This was the same for Hilary. She talks about sub standard medical care and about being hospitalised in a maternity ward (which would be my idea of hell). It was written to beautifully and so tragically. If you have suffered with anything similar (adenomyosis [which I also have] is equally shit) I would really really recommend it. 

I love life writing and whenever I read something like this it makes me want to write my own memoir for real. I'm giving it five out of five. 

Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie - Review

Saturday, January 25, 2025



At the end of December this book was just 99p on Kindle so I bought it because I thought it would be good reading for the very end of the year, as all the short stories in it are set in the winter. Plus we were away for New Year and you know me, I like to be reading something on my Kindle when I'm away because it just makes it easier. So I started this just before the New Year and finished it on the 2nd of January. 

Some of the stories are Poirot and a couple are Miss Marple, so that was nice too, to be back in familiar ground. The first story, The Chocolate Box, is one that I recently saw the TV adaptation of, so it was nice to read the story too. I liked all the mysteries and worked a couple of them out, which made me happy. It's Agatha at her best, and I really liked the collection. I'm giving it four out of five. 

Book Quiz 2024

Wednesday, January 22, 2025


How many books read in 2024?

110. I know the graphic above says 109 and I cannot for the life of me work out which one I didn't record on Goodreads, but I know my paper records are right! 

How many were on paper and how many electronic?

I think I've read approx sixty in paperback, fifteen hardbacks, thirty electronic books, by which I mean read in the Kindle app on my tablet, and I listened to five audiobooks. 

Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?

I think I read only eight non fiction books. That's just who I am as a person. Non fiction has to be a subject I'm interested in for me to even give it a go, even though I read a lot of different genres of fiction. 

Male/Female authors?

I think I read about twenty three books either by men solely or co authored by men, and a couple by non binary authors. The rest were all - as far as I know - women 

Most books by a single author?

I read a lot of Val McDermid in 2024, and enjoyed each of them! 

Favourite book(s) read?

I really liked Wild Strawberries by Angela Thirkell and am really glad to have found her. I also liked Jean Ure, who I discovered after a friend sent me one of her books 

Least favourite?

The Four by Ellie Keel for sure, I really didn't think it was worth finishing in a lot of ways

Oldest book read?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F Scott Fitzgerald, which was published in 1925. I listened to it on audiobook and liked it 

Newest?

A couple of the netgalley books I read aren't published until 2025 so let's say one of those: Making A Killing by Cara Hunter

Longest book title?

I'm not adding letters up so let's say something different to Benjamin Button and say The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi. Or Confessions of A Forty Something Fuck Up by Alexandra Potter

Shortest title?

Keedie by Elle Nichol I think 

How many re-reads?

I so rarely reread because there are just so many books waiting in the world to be read! But I had read both stories in Almost Midnight by Rainbow Rowell before so I guess technically that was a reread. 

Any in translation?

As far as I know none of them were translated. 

How many of this year's books were from the library?

Fewer than the year before I think, as I've been trying to make a dent in my huge TBR pile (shelves full). Reading back over my notes, I think it's twelve, but it feels a lot less! 
 

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