Hard Place by Gab Torr - Review

I can't remember where I heard of this book, I probably saw someone I follow on Instagram reading it. I requested it at the library and when it came in I took it away for the weekend with me. However it took me ages to read because it was SUCH a slog. I really didn't like it at all. 

Billy is a twenty something and she's a lesbian and she has been in a relationship with a girl called Rose, who breaks up with her on the beginning of the novel. Rose has sort of controlled Billy for years, leaving Billy to barely make a decision by herself. But now she has to move out and she doesn't have anywhere to go. She had an abusive childhood and her addict mother has died. Billy was mostly raised by her grandad, who still lives in his bungalow by the sea. She has a strained relationship with him although it's not exactly spelt out why. I think he finds her sexuality hard but the book doesn't really expound on it. Anyway Billy doesn't want to go back to her seaside childhood home so she has to trawl through roommate ads. 

She answers one placed by Sid, who is non binary, and Rhoda, a cis lesbian. They are loud and unapologetically queer and talk a lot about taking accountability and holding space for each other in their communal flat. Sid works in mental health care and Rhoda is kind of between jobs, propped up by her parents. Her parents also happen to own the flat that they all live in which is very yikes and which is never really unpacked. 

They have a ton of friends and they get Billy involved in their clique but she's just kind of - removed? Apathetic? From her own life and her new life. I just didn't get her at all. I didn't get the book. Maybe I am just too much of an older queer to understand what Gen Z are doing. But I DO have polyamorous friends, I do believe in accountability and making space for each other, but I don't think the book DID that. I think it skirted with the concepts but just didn't get there. Billy almost becomes self aware but then she doesn't. I found it just so annoying and sadly I can't recommend the book. I wouldn't read anything else by the same author unless someone REALLY sold it to me. I am giving the book two out of five. 

Not Going to Plan by Tia Fisher - Review

 

My friend Jane, who is a school librarian - shout out to all school librarians! - visited me in August and we were talking about the state of UK Young Adult contemporary fiction, which is one of my favourite types of YA fiction. I really feel like contemporary YA has dropped off in the past decade or so and specifically over the past six years. Everything in YA seems to be fantasy or romance, neither of which I'm massively keen on. I was complaining and Jane told me to check out Tia Fisher. So I looked on my library system and this was available, so I requested it. When it came in I took it on a weekend away and read it really quickly. 

It is a book told in verse from two points of view. It's similar to other books told in verse, and I really liked using that form to tell a story like this. 

The first point of view is Marnie's. She has been thrown out of her private boarding school and has to go to the local comprehensive to get her GCSEs done. The only spare seat in the classroom is next to Zed, who is a loner and a nerd and who absolutely doesn't want to talk to her. But they do form an unlikely friendship and Zed starts tutoring Marnie in Physics. She is very arty and wants to do Art at college but she needs her other grades to be high enough too. 

She makes Zed go to a party and while she's there she has sex with a boy who pretends to wear a condom. This is called stealthing and it is SEXUAL ASSAULT. It is coercing sex under false pretences and it is NOT right. I want to be SO clear about that. Marnie does eventually realise what exactly has happened to her IS assault, IS rape, and so on. She gets help.

She ends up pregnant and she ends up getting an abortion. I was SO pleased to see an actual medical abortion written about on page. She takes meds and yes it isn't pleasant, but Marnie gets through it. She is a fighter, I really liked her. She makes Zed be friends with her and she also makes some other friends whose names I've forgotten but I really liked the little gang they had forged together. 

Meanwhile Zed. He's harder to get a read on but I did like him. He definitely read as autistic to me, as does his mother. His mum is a single mum and got pregnant via a donor, so it is just her and Zed. He's very set in his ways and he thinks he's fine being a loner at school, but he realises that actually, maybe making friends and being a bit bolder isn't a bad thing. 

I loved how this explored sexual consent and abortion. Tia Fisher clearly did her research and I think it's a really powerful book. I definitely want to read something else by her! I'm giving this four out of five. 

The Names by Florence Knapp - Review

My friend Stacey raved about this book so I requested it at the library and I had to wait a while because it was in hot demand, but eventually it came to me and I read it at the end of August. It's mid October now though and I'm only just getting round to reviewing it. I'm so far behind but trying SO hard to get caught up because I keep forgetting the details of books and it's incredibly irritating. I am relying on google!

Anyway! This book is about Cora, a mum with two children. In the autumn of 1987, she sets out after the notorious hurricane to register the birth of her six week old son. In a Sliding Doors kind of way, in each reality she chooses a different name and we get to see what happens to the family in each one. We catch up with the family every seven years until almost the present day, when that baby is now an adult. Cora is married to Gordon, he is the father of her children, and he is abusive towards her. He is a GP after failing to become a surgeon like his dad, and he's got a massive chip on his shoulder about it. Maia, their little girl, is old enough to realise what her dad is like.

In the first reality, Cora names the baby Bear, at Maia's suggestion. He becomes that cuddly bear when he is seven. At that time, Gordon is in prison for murdering a man who came to Cora's rescue on the night that she told Gordon that she had named the baby Bear. Cora and the children have escaped from his clutches and are rebuilding their lives. Maia is very protective of her baby brother but life still has its tragedies. Maia is left with PTSD from her dad. 

In the second reality, Cora names the baby Julian, which is her choice. I don't want to give spoilers for this reality because it was so shocking to read and I want every reader to have that experience too. I loved the ending of Julian's arc. No more from me! Read the book!

In the third reality, the baby is named Gordon, after his father. He is very much moulded in his image and is nearly as cruel as his father. Cora is still married to him and in his clutches and the abuse to which she is subjected is horrific. By the end she is not allowed a key to her own house, is not allowed out without Gordon being there. She is an old lady and still suffering. Maia tries desperately to get her mother free. Gordon Jr has had his problems but there is light at the end of this arc.

I loved Cora and Maia and the baby in each story. Cora and Maia are easy to sympathise with and I loved the triad that the three had. Gordon is incredibly easy to believe - you know people ARE as abusive as that. He is AWFUL, but so well written. A very good villain to hate. 

It is a really interesting concept and I think Florence Knapp did brilliantly. What impact would a small and yet huge decision like this make to your life? It's fascinating to think about. My only criticism is that sometimes I found it hard to remember what that particular iteration of the baby had been doing last time. It would have been easier to read if you read all of Bear's story first, then all of Julian's, and then all of Gordon's, rather than going B/J/G/B/J/G etc. But that might just be me! I really liked the book and will definitely look out for Florence's next book. In all I am giving this four out of five. 

Sisters... No Way by Siobhan Parkinson - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my stop on the tour for Sisters... No Way! by Siobhan Parkinson. It is a pleasure to welcome you here! Please do have a click around and read some of my other reviews. I love contemporary Young Adult literature and read quite a bit of it, so I was thrilled to sign up for this tour.

This book is actually thirty years old and is being reissued. It was first published in 1995. So I kept that in mind when I was reading it, but I don't think it showed itself too much. Of course the girls didn't have phones of their own, and their phones are corded and in the hallway and shared between the family, but otherwise the girls' problems are universal, as are their interests. They like boys and bands and they worry about school and so on. So it definitely stand the test of time!

You can read either half of the book first. I started with Cindy. The book is a vague retelling of Cinderella which Siobhan explains at the beginning of the book. So Cindy is Cinderella. Her mum has very recently died at the beginning - like literally only six weeks before the start of the book. It is told in her diary entries, as is Ashling's part. This gives the reader a really close reading of the book and makes you really empathise with each of the girls. Cindy has just lost her mum and she is of course grieving horribly. She and her dad are learning to be just the two of them, but it's difficult. 

She's having problems at school and she gets sent to the guidance counsellor, Margaret Magee. All the girls think she's a bit wet so Cindy has no time for her, but then her father gets involved and all too soon, Richard and Margaret are dating. Cindy is NOT happy - and I can't blame her because she has only just lost her mother. She acts out a bit and over the summer it seems like the two have split up, but then Margaret is pregnant so the two families will HAVE to merge and learn how to get along.

Cindy is close to her friend Lisa, and her aunt, Richard's sister. She is disabled, in a way that I thought was really well written and well done. Cindy meets a boy and I liked this cute bit too! She deserved some happiness. I liked Cindy a lot and sympathised a lot with her.

I was intrigued to start Ashling's point of view. She is a bit older than Cindy and lives with her mum, Margaret, and sister, Alva. Their parents are divorced and their dad is a bit useless. They have a little half brother but they're not really close to him. Ashling is fiercely protective of her younger sister. She has a boyfriend, Bob, but she comes to realise that the two of them aren't really compatible. She and her sister and mother have got a good rhythm going as a family, and Ashling really doesn't want Cindy and Richard to mess things up! But through her point of view you understand why certains things happen and see different parts of the girls' lives which makes them much more than the wet weekends Cindy thinks they are. I liked Ashling, she's spunky. 

In all I'm giving the book four out of five as I really liked it and was happy to join in the tour. I would definitely read something else by Siobhan soon! 

A Family Matter by Claire Lynch - Review

My friend Helen sent me this book as she had read it and thought I would like it. It was nice to get a little care package from her! 

I really love how this book looks really like the novellas I've read by other authors including Claire Keegan, they're really well designed little books and are so nice to read. I definitely keep my eyes out for these when I'm browing in bookshops, in Waterstones especially. I am grateful to whoever is publishing these! 

The book is about a woman, Maggie, and her mother, Dawn. In 2022, Maggie is an adult, forty something, with children of her own. She is dealing with her elderly father; there is a gap where her mother should be, where her mother has never been. He has got a medical diagnosis that he hasn't yet shared with her and he never speaks of her mother. Then Maggie discovers a letter which reveals a lot about her childhood and about what happened to Dawn. 

Dawn was a young mum in 1982 and not exactly happily married but really it seems like she is just bored. Maggie is a small child and her dad, whose name I forget, is just off to work every day and providing for the family. He doesn't have a lot of time for Dawn, for sure. Then Dawn meets Hazel and they start to fall in love. Dawn leaves the family but in 1980s Britain this meant that she no longer had access to her daughter. Lesbians were considered perverts and she wasn't awarded any custody of her daughter. Instead she had to disappear, although she did send letters to Maggie...

Apparently, the phrases used in the courtroom scenes in the book were taken from actual court proceedings that happened to women who were in relationships with other women and who were trying to fight for custody of their children. That shocked and appalled me because there are questions like 'Has your child seen you having sex with your girlfriend?' and 'What kind of sex toys have you used with your girlfriend?'. It is shocking! I'm so glad things have come on a long way in the forty years since this time. There are tons of families with two mums or two dads or whatever, and I'm glad that is becoming more and more acceptable. But I also like being taught things about queer history that I didn't know.

I liked Maggie as a character but I loved Dawn. It was so easy to understand her point of view; I really liked her. I would definitely read something else by Claire Lynch, and I am giving this four out of five. 

The Killing Time by Elly Griffiths - Review

Elly Griffiths is back! Wooo! This is the second book in her new series about a secret time travelling police team, starring Ali Dawson as the lead detective. I enjoyed the first book a lot so as soon as it was out, I got this. I really liked it. Even though I was suspicious of the premise before the first book, it soon won me over because Elly's writing is so warm and fun that you just get dragged along.

We meet the team when they are banned from doing time travel, because their science girl, Seraphina Jones, is stuck in the 1850s due to happenings in the first book. Ali is depressed and the other science person is working hard to get Jones back, but currently, nothing doing. Ali gets a visit from a distraught mother whose son has taken his own life. She tells Ali that he was under the influence of a spiritualist type of person called Barry Power. 

Starting to investigate Power, Ali and her colleague go to one of his shows. There, Power tells her that he is in touch with Jones. Ali is obviously peturbed by this. Later that night she realises her cat, Terry, has gone missing and she asks the science guy (whose name has left my head, sorry) to help her go back in time to make sure he doesn't go missing. However, something goes wrong, and Ali ends up back in the 1850s. 

I loved the story and was totally wrapped up in it again. There's less of Ali's son Finn which I thought was a shame because I liked him in the first book, but I just loved it. I'm giving it five out of five and I just can't wait for the next one! 

The Haven by Fiona Neill - Review

I got this on Netgalley way back in 2024 but only just got to reading it, for which I am really sorry as I really liked it. Thank you to Michael Joseph and Penguin Random House for granting me access to the book. I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Cass, aged sixteen, wakes up with injuries, but isn't sure where she is or what has happened. Then she realises she's in The Haven. It's an off grid intentional community where Cass' family has been living for the past few months. She can't remember everything but she thinks she has done something terrible. 

It all started at Cass' younger sister's birthday party. Matilda (I think, it's a couple of months since I read this book so the details may be wrong) is about seven and there were family and friends around, including Cass' dad's new friend, Mo. He had recently been travelling and he kept talking about the place he lived, The Haven. Cass' dad loves the idea, but her mum is more uncertain. Cass' aunt thinks it's a loopy idea, and Cass and her older brother, Josh (I think), are aghast at the idea of living off grid. 

However, the family moves there. They have a van which ends up crashing but they do manage to get there eventually. There are a bunch of people already there including a few younger people like Cass and her siblings. Mo isn't there to begin with but he's been texting Cass and wants them to be together. He's grooming her, definitely, it's really gross. The people already there don't want Cass and her family to be there so they're angry with Mo in his absence. She does make friends with some of the teen girls who are there, but there's something weird and cultic going on with them too (which I didn't totally understand by the end, but there was are).

When Cass wakes up the place is destroyed. There was tension with people living across the lake, where everyone in The Haven was forbidden to go. Cass needs to work quickly to save her family and herself.

I generally liked the book and am giving it four stars out of five. I think it was a compelling Young Adult novel, with a lot of intrigue and mystery. 

Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley - Review

I saw this book recommended somewhere and thought it sounded really interesting so I requested it at the library. I've been using my library a lot this year, it's much better than buying books and my library system has the vast majority of the books I've wanted. I run a craft club in my local library on Monday mornings so pick up books then and the librarians know me well.

This book is set in Barrowbeck, a fictional town on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border. Now I don't know if you've ever been to towns on those borders, but they are hinterlands, somehow neither one thing nor another. often quite remote and isolated. So I could well imagine the setting! The book follows the town from its very earliest foundations until a post apocalyptic future. 

The first people in the area are Ancient Celts, driven out of Wales. They make deals with the local gods in order to settle in the area but are servants of the supernatural forces there. This motif carries throughout the whole novel. We pop into the town every couple of centuries or so and meet the locals. To begin with there's a lot of witchcraft and so on but then Christianity takes over. There's a childless couple who do a deal with the devil in order to have a baby. There's a progressive clergyman who has impoverished children from Barnsley and Huddersfield visit. There's World War One and there's a doctor who knows her husband is having an affair. It's a series of vignettes and I thought it worked really well. 

The final part is set in the near future when the town has been flooded and is no longer habitable. I found this spookiest of all because it was just so believable. 

I haven't read anything by Andrew Michael Hurley before but I know people raved about The Loney so maybe I will read that soon. I really wanted Lee to read this so he bought it to read on his tablet. In all I'm giving this five out of five because I thought it was brilliant. 

Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza - Review

When I read Yesteryear I saw recommendations for this, which is similar but apparently better. So I got it and read it on Kindle. I was reading it when I went to Brighton in August which is where I took this photo - the pink item is my bag and the blue item at the bottom is my dress, and I swear the creamy colour to the right hand side is actually the white sheets in the lighting in the room, not my flesh! I didn't notice what this photo looked like until I've uploaded it just now... 

Anyway! On to the plot. I haven't written here in ages and it's weeks since I read this book so I am trying to remind myself about what happened in it. I really need to get caught up on my book blogging because I don't want to miss out any of the books I've read! Please bear with me. 

The first character is Lizzie. She's a magazine writer whose job is in jeopardy because of the death of magazines and so on. She's married and she has two young children. She spends quite a lot of time scrolling through the instagram of her old friend Bex, who is now a tradwife influencer. It's a love/hate kind of thing and Lizzie can't tear herself away. Then she gets a message from Bex, now known as Rebecca, suggesting that she break some news about Rebecca's life in her magazine. It will be a huge story and Rebecca wants her to be the one to break the news. She suggests that she and Lizzie meet up at a blogging conference and she will give Lizzie the exclusive interview. 

The conference is very clearly meant to be Blog Her, which is probably defunct now and which really made me laugh. It's full of influencers and corporate giveaways. It's held at a luxury hotel and Lizzie enjoys her first couple of days there. She barely sees Rebecca, but enjoys herself anyway. Rebecca comes to her room one night and they drink together, Rebecca letting her tradwife side slip. 

Then the next morning, in the middle of the keynote speech or whatever, news comes that Rebecca's husband Gray has been found murdered on their ranch. She is taken for questioning and so is Lizzie. 

Rebecca's life turns out to not be as rosy as it looks online. She is married to Gray, and has moulded him into the man she would like him to be - a bit like Natalie in Yesteryear. They have five children. Rebecca is working hard at her job of making everything look perfect - but clearly not everything is. 

I did find the book really compelling and I liked Lizzie's point of view and thought it was so true how she couldn't look away from Rebecca's life. But it just fell a bit flat for me. I'm giving it three and a half out of five because I do think it's worth reading, and I do think it's better than Yesteryear, but it just wasn't quite there yet. 

The Bookman's Wake by John Dunning - Review

This book was my choice for book club. I wasn't sure what to suggest this year so ended up picking this. I first read it about twenty years ago, maybe longer. It was definitely when my dad was still alive and he died in 2008. He read it first when we were on holiday in France I think, and he liked it so much that he made my mum and I read it too. I absolutely loved it at the time but have never reread it. I thought it was an interesting choice for book club as we don't tend to read a lot of crime, and I thought it would be interesting to read it now I'm 42, not in my late teens or early twenties as I was before. 

The book is one of a series about an ex police detective called Cliff Janeway. He now works as a book dealer and he's minding his own business doing that one day when an ex colleague arrives in his shop. This colleague is now like a bounty hunter, returning those who have skipped bail and cashing in on it. He has a new person he's chasing. She's called Eleanor Rigby and she's a young woman who's skipped bail. Janeway is intrigued because of the connection to books - there have been ashes of books left behind after robberies that Eleanor has been arrested for, and Janeway wants to know why. 

He sets off in pursuit of her and ends up in Washington or Oregon, one of those places. I think. It's a while since I read this so the details are a bit fuzzy. Anyway she's been all over the country and there are dead bodies, too, so if it was Eleanor then she is also wanted for murder. I can't fully remember. But Janeway captures Eleanor and then they spend a nice twenty four hours together scavenging rare books and teaching each other some lessons. He then decides to take her back to her family farm and meets her parents and her uncle. There's definitely a frisson of something sexual between them even though, as Janeway points out to himself, he's old enough to be her dad. 

So the books that have been left in ashes at crime scenes. Eleanor's dad used to work for the Graysons. They were a pair of brothers who had a printing press. Darryl Grayson was proud of his work and was very exacting about it. He printed a copy of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe and there was a mistake in it, way back in 1949, and he was haunted by it for twenty years. The brothers died in a fire in 1969, a fire that took their entire workshop and everything else up in smoke. But Janeway finds that there were rumours that there was a new copy of The Raven, without the mistake. The rumour goes that Darryl sent it out to his subscribers, first of all, but that he was going to do a proper print run but then he died, and couldn't. Janeway suspects that the ashes of the books left at the crime scenes were copies of this new version of The Raven.

These parts of the book are all fine, and interesting, but it gets bogged down in detail at about two thirds of the way through. There are people after Eleanor and it all gets a bit stupid and there's too many characters and it's hard to wade through. But I did enjoy the main story. I think most people at book club agreed with me. 

In all I'm giving this sort of three and a half out of five - not quite a four but it was nice to reread something that I read so long ago and that I shared with my dad. I'm not sure I would read any others in the series, though! 

Are You Awake? by Sarah Crossan - Review

I realised there was a Sarah Crossan book that I hadn't read so I requested it at the library. It's six weeks since I read it now so I'm struggling to remember the names of the people in the book. Let me go google... 

Ah, yes. This book is for adults, definitely, so be careful if your children know Sarah Crossan from her YA books and want to pick this up. I've read another of Sarah's adult books and think I've read everything she's written actually! The other adult book was told in verse like her YA books are. This one is told in sort of vignettes, so it's not a full novel but the way of writing worked really well for the subject matter. It gives a really compelling look into the mind of Dolores, the main character.

She is a secondary school teacher and she's married to David. He's some kind of corporate something, I don't remember. One morning Dolores discovers a sex doll hidden in a bag in the garage. She's a lifelike full size doll called Zoey. In fact, the book was previously published under the name Hey Zoey, because that's what Dolores keeps saying to activate her. Finding her throws up a lot in Dolores' and David's marriage. She asks him to leave but then she unpacks Zoey herself and ends up opening up to the doll in ways she's never been able to with David.

The two of them met at university and I feel like Dolores engineered a lot of their relationship to ensure that they ended up together. Like David just isn't that forthcoming as a person. Dolores is traumatised and seems numb throughout the book, which I liked. She had a difficult relationship with her mother and protected her little sister from a lot of things. When she was young, her mum moved in her partner and his son. The son was just a bit older than Dolores and eventually sexually abused her. It isn't told in explicity terms but it is definitely there, and Dolores struggles with it. 

I didn't feel like we got to know David at all, which I found strange, but honestly I have very little criticism of the book. I'm giving it four out of five. 

The Family Friend by Claire Douglas - Review

This was the third book I bought in Waterstones in Peterborough and I read it near the end of July. I've read other books by Claire Douglas and I was intrigued by the premise of this book so I got it. My cousin's wife saw it when I'd bought it and expressed interest, so I passed it on to her when I was done. I hope she liked it more than I did. I didn't hate it, but I only gave it three out of five stars so there was obviously something that didn't gel with me. It's a while since I read it but I will try to cast my mind back...

The book is about Imogen, a woman in her thirties who has been working as a journalist but she's suspended at the moment due to something that happened with one of her investigations. She is I think married to Josh, who is a tiresome human being that I disliked from the off. Some of his actions were really abusive so I would give a trigger warning for that. Imogen gets the unexpected news that she has been left a massive house in Bath in the will of a woman called Dorothea. 

Dorothea is an artist and has had a successful career, but the house went up in flames and a lot of her artwork was destroyed. But Imogen finds a box addressed to her and realises Dorothea is trying to tell her something about her own past as well as what happened to Dorothea. Imogen hasn't seen Dorothea since she was sixteen, half her lifetime ago, when her mother left her dad and took Imogen with her. They stayed with Dorothea and she helped them, but Imogen's mother went back to Imogen's dad, and he is now serving time for her murder. Imogen has had a difficult life because of this, but is very close to her sister.

She starts trying to unravel what happened to Dorothea. There's a weird neighbour who is a bit too friendly, and there's a hunky next door neighbour who Imogen remembers from the summer she was sixteen. Dorothea's studio yields nothing but then there's a hidden bunker in the garden which does. There are three friends of Dorothea's who know a lot about what happened with Imogen's parents, but they are under threat too. 

I liked the sense of threat in the book a lot, but Imogen drove me mad by making stupid mistakes and decisions. Josh is a proper dickhead to her. I thought it was a bit slow in parts, too. I think maybe my time with Claire Douglas is up as I don't find her that interesting. 

Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan - Review

I've read other books by Claire Keegan so when I spied this in Waterstones in Peterborough I picked it up. I had a voucher to spend so got this and something else on buy one get one half price. I then read it really soon after purchasing, which is good going for me. 

I love the sparseness of the prose in this book, which I've said about Claire Keegan before. I love these little novella books, of around 150 pages, as I think they're really accessible for readers. This one is short stories and I like how Claire said so much in so few words. They were even sparser than her usual stuff! All the stories are set in Ireland which I loved. There are only seven stories and I liked them all. 

I really liked the title story, about a priest performing a marriage involving a woman that he was in love with, and how he moves through the day. There's a story about an abused daughter which was hard to read but done so beautifully. I liked the story about Martha, a storyteller, who causes chaos in her family by exposing the truth about them to the neighbours. But they were all good! 

I think I've read everything that Claire Keegan has published now which is a shame, but I more recently read a book that was a lot like this one, which I'll review soon! In all I'm giving this four out of five and I thoroughly recommend it. 

Heartstopper Vol 6 by Alice Oseman - Review

It's the end of Heartstopper! Waahhhh! I had forgotten it was coming out in July and then I was in Waterstones in Peterborough on holiday and I saw it. I still had vouchers so I bought three books and this was one of them. I have read a bunch of the others as library books but decided now that the series is over that I wanted to own them all. I ended up buying the first five books as a set on Vinted and I may have to do a reread soon!

I also wanted to read this book before I watched the Heartstopper film that was the finale to the TV show. It was on Netflix about the 17th of July or something. I had a procedure on the 21st of July and laid on the sofa for the whole entire day, so I planned to watch the film so knew I needed to read this first. So I did. And now it's ended. Wahhh! I thought the book ended in such a lovely way, I liked it a lot. 

We're back with Nick and Charlie as they work through being separated for the first time as Nick is heading off to uni. Nick struggles with not being 'perfect', something which goes back to his dad leaving the family. It was nice to see them supporting Nick through something rather than him being the strong silent type while Charlie's mental health suffered. Charlie's confidence grows and grows in this book which was amazing to see. I loved seeing Nick at uni - it was so reminiscent of my own time at uni. 

We also saw the endings for all the people we've got really fond of over the years - Tara and Darcy and of course Elle and Tao. Elle is my favourite character - well except Mr Farouk because I am an old jaded queer as well. And I loved HIS ending too, but no spoilers! But Elle and Tao had a really realistic ending and it showed how grown up they could be. 

I liked the film as well, it stuck really close to the book which was good. I am sad to see it end, though. As I've said a million times, when I was younger we just didn't have this type of queer representation on the television so I'm happy it exists now and look forward to seeing more. I will read more of Alice's stuff soon and probably do some rereads too. In all I'm giving this four out of five. It's adorable. 

The Secret of Skeleton Island and The Mystery of The Moaning Cave - Review

 

When I was little I read a bunch of these books, and last year I reread The Mystery of the Talking Skull and really liked it. I got a few of the books on Kindle and when I was away at the beginning of July (nearly two months ago, which is how far behind I am with my reviews...) I ended up reading two of them. The first night, I couldn't sleep. I wonder if I was given caffeinated coffee actually because I couldn't sleep for the life in me. I finally fell asleep at like 6am when I had read an entire book and watched the sun come up. Which was actually really pretty to see. But even so!

So these books have Alfred Hitchcock's name attached to them and he always makes an appearance when the Three Investigators have finished a mystery and they tell him about it, but he didn't write them or anything. I did think that most of them were written by Robert Arthur, but The Mystery of The Moaning Cave was written by someone called William Arden. I have read both before, I'm pretty sure, way back over thirty years ago when I used my little local library every week. 

The Three Investigators are Jupiter, Bob, and Pete. The books are set in California in the 1960s and although a little outdated they do stand up to modern reading. I would actually LOVE a modern rewrite of this series with new technology and stuff like that. Jupiter lives with his aunt and uncle although I don't remember why and it wasn't explained in either of these books. Bob and Pete live with their respective parents. 

In The Secret of Skeleton Island Pete's dad is working in Hollywood and filming a movie on the east coast or something, and the three boys are invited to go and watch and do some diving. I vividly remember this book because Bob and Pete get stuck while diving and that makes me feel sick, it's one of my worst phobias. I have never reread The Beach because of the bit when the Swedes get stuck in the diving tunnel through the island - it was just TOO realistic and I remember feeling the same about Bob and Pete! The boys are picked up when they arrive but are dropped off on the wrong island and have to rescue themselves. The waters around the island are full of fish, but surely the rumours about them being full of buried treasure aren't real?! 

I still loved this book as much as I did when I was a kid. I'm giving it four out of five. 

I don't know if I've read The Mystery of The Moaning Cave before. It didn't ring as many bells for me. The three boys are on holiday in Southern California on a huge ranch. There are rumours that an outlaw called El Diablo went missing on a cave on the ranch and now there are moaning noises coming from that cave. But surely the long dead outlaw cannot actually be there? There are a bunch of people in this book, all of whom have a different opinion about the moaning noises. The boys obviously go to investigate. 

I enjoyed this book as well, another four out of five. I will have to read some more of this series soon!

Dead Teenager Movie by Cethan Leahy - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the blog tour for Dead Teenager Movie by Cethan Leahy. It is a pleasure you welcome you here. Please do have a click around and read some of my other reviews!

I was immediately intrigued by the premise of this book so wasted no time in signing up for the tour. I read the book in mid August and really enjoyed it. It's a fun YA novel, drawing on a lot of horror movie tropes. I would definitely read something else by Cethan Leahy and look forward to what he writes next!

The book is set near Cork in Ireland. I love Irish based Young Adult lit so I was really glad to read this, there really needs to be more of it. There are five teenagers. Four of them already know each other - Carl, his sister Scarlett, their friends Erika and John. Carl and Scarlett are wealthy, Carl has his own car, stuff like that. He has just started seeing April so they pick her up on their way to an isolated house for the weekend. Carl says it's his dad's second home or something. 

But strange things start happening and the group realise they are being stalked. A series of murders have happened in Cork including a janitor being murdered and someone heading to a party with no one there, so the teens start to wonder if this is the same person. They lose any way of leaving the house and are desperately trying to stay alive. 

Meanwhile, two teens are watching a livestream of what is happening to April and co and they are so intrigued - it's like a horror movie but it's really happening. They decide to try to get to the house where April and the others are, but soon things don't look too good for them either. 

There's a bunch of horror film tropes that happen while April, Carl, Scarlett, Erika and John are trying to stay alive. Things like - don't believe the bad guy is really dead. Don't trust anyone. Nowhere is safe. 

It's a really fun book and I enjoyed it. I am giving it four out of five and am hoping everyone else enjoyed it just as much! 

The Woman In Suite 11 by Ruth Ware - Review

I read The Woman in Cabin 10 in late 2018, absolutely years ago now! Then at Stockport Noir in January she was talking about this, a sequel to that book, so I ordered it. I didn't love it, and having read my review for the first book, I can see why! I think maybe Ruth Ware just isn't for me, and that's okay. She was absolutely lovely when I met her, which is the important thing!

So, Laura is living her best life in New York, married to her dishy husband Judah and bringing up their two children. She's still a journalist but not a travel writer. It is a decade on from what happened in the first book. But then she gets an invitation to the opening of a luxury hotel in Switzerland and wants to go to try and revive her career. The hotel is owned by the Leidmann Group, whose head is Marcus Leidmann. It is widely believed that he will give up the position to his son, Pieter. 

Lo arrives in Switzerland and is reunited with three people from the cruise ship ten years earlier, which seems weird but they're all still working so maybe it's not that weird? Then Lo gets an invitation to Suite 11. She goes, and finds Carrie, who was the woman in Cabin 10 all those years ago and who has been on the run ever since due to her involvement in that case.

She tells Lo that she is Marcus' mistress and that she is trapped. He is abusive towards her and knows that she isn't who she says she is and is blackmailing her to stay. She wants Lo's help - Laura has two passports and Carrie wants to borrow one to get them both to England. Lo is really unsure but eventually agrees to help, feeling guilty about what happened ten years ago. 

It's a risky plan but they do both make it through and end up deep in the Sussex countryside in a fancy hotel. They have plans to leave - Laura is going to see her mum - but these plans are derailed when Marcus and Pieter turn up at the hotel. Lo and Carrie think that they are tracking Lo to see if Carrie turns up, so they try to hide her. But it all goes a bit wrong when Marcus is found drowned in his bath. 

I thought the story was compelling but the book lost its way a bit and it was just too long. It needed some editing I think. I can only give it three out of five. 

The Silence In Between by Josie Ferguson - Review

This was the July choice for my book club and I read it on Kindle. I did mostly enjoy it but had a few caveats that took my star rating down a bit. 

The book has a dual narrative. In the first one, Lisette is around thirty years old and has two children. Ellie is fifteen and Axel is only a few weeks old. Axel is unwell and Lisette takes him to the hospital in West Berlin. She is urged to go home and sleep and come back in the morning with clothes for him and her. But in the morning, the people of East Berlin find that the Wall has gone up overnight and they are no longer permitted to travel there freely. Axel is stuck in the hospital and no one can do anything. But Ellie is determined to smuggle herself in to West Berlin to rescue her baby brother. 

In the second narrative, it is Berlin during World War Two. Lisette lives with her mother who I think was called Rita. Her father is off fighting and Rita waits for him to come home forever more, years after the war has ended. Lisette is in love with a neighbour, Julius, who has been drafted to fight and must leave. The women are friends with a neighbour, Frau Weber, who is a Nazi, althought from Lisette's point of view she and her mother definitely aren't. THEY definitely don't think Jewish people are subhuman or whatever like those NASTY Nazis do! I really didn't like this part of the book because I felt like it exonerated Lisette and her family too much. The book moves on to what happened after the Soviets moved in and how terrible they were to the Germans. The book is pretty harrowing in terms of sexual assault and rape. Others in my book club felt like Lisette was right in what she did, but I'm not sure I agree. 

It was interesting to read about what happened in Berlin during the war, especially from the point of view of women, who are often left behind in war. However, it was often hard to tell the difference between Lisette's and Ellie's points of view, so when the timeline shifted it was hard to tell who it was. Especially when Lisette was a young woman; then the book read more like Young Adult fiction and it just didn't quite ring true for me. I also didn't like how, I felt, no one took responsibility for Nazi actions. 

In all I am giving it three and a half out of five. My caveats mean it got rounded down from four stars. 

Hey Man by Andrew Meehan - Review

I went into the main library in Barnsley town centre when I was there with Lee, and picked up a couple of books. It's a new building, woven into the new piazza that the council made a few years ago, so it's really easy to get to and accessible. I love the displays they have in there and often like to have a look if I'm in the area. I picked up this book and a middle grade children's book that I haven't read yet so I've renewed it a couple of times. 

This is a really understated novella and I really liked it. It reminded me of Claire Keegan and similar authors - there's as much in what's not said as there is in what is said. 

Ian is seventeen and living in Ireland when he goes to live with his dad's cousin in London. Tommy is thirty and a jobbing actor, and dashing and charismatic. It is 1989 and Ian is sheltered and shy. But he and Tommy stay up all night and gad about London and really Ian falls in love. 

They meet again in Dublin fifteen years later, briefly, when Ian is a Benedictine monk known as Brother Eugene, and Tommy is still a jobbing actor, still treating women badly, still dashing and charismatic.

They meet finally when Tommy is sixty and celebrating his birthday, but he's also dying. 

It's a lovely book, very undersold and written in such a longing fashion that it made me ache. I'm giving it four out of five and would definitely read something else by Andrew Meehan in the future. 

 

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke - Review

I had heard so much hype about this book and a couple of people told me it was exactly my thing so I thought I had better read it sooner rather than later. I need to discuss it in person with people who have also read it, because it boggled me a bit. 

One thing you might not know about me is that I have a special interest in Christian fundamentalists. I did Theology and Religious Studies at university which I think is a big part of it. I have kept an eye on families like the Duggars, the Collins, Ballerina Farm and so on ever since. I belong to forums where we discuss these families and how gross they are for what they believe in. 

There has been a rise in Christian fascism over the past decade and a half, and it has meant that we ended up with Trump in the White House. Twice. The fact they love him is absolutely boggling because he is everything they are supposedly against - but he isn't a mixed race woman so they voted for him over Kamala Harris because they really hate women and they really hate people who aren't white, so she's a double whammy. They are behind the rise of Zionism in the US and increasingly in the UK too. It's scary. It's easy to look at their cute kids, perfect kitchens, and modest dress, and think that they aren't that dangerous. But they have LOT of power, money, and influence, and they are scary. I loathe them, of course. They are antithesis to everything I believe in. 

Enter Caro Claire Burke and her novel, which is about a tradwife called Natalie. She is from a somewhat fundamentalist home and was brought up by her mother with her sister. Her dad left the family but everyone pretended he was dead and the family moved, so that the mother could keep respectability. Natalie wears somewhat modest clothing when she's at college and judges her roommate dreadfully because she has sex and is just a normal eighteen year old but like whatever, Natalie is incredibly judgemental. 

Natalie meets Caleb, whose dad is a senator or something. The family is incredibly wealthy and Caleb is the fifith of five sons and is, honestly, just incredibly thick. I feel like his dad has spent a lot of time bailing him out of trouble. But Natalie knows she can mould Caleb into the alpha male she wants him to be. She sells him on the idea of a ranch, where he will be the boss, and she will stay at home with the children and drink raw milk (they are all obsessed with raw milk). She sells him on this and ends up leaving college before the end of her second year so they can get married and she can have her first baby. 

Fifteen years later she is living the dream. Allegedly. She has a handful of children, another one on the way, and she has Help. She has two nannies, a bunch of ranch hands to do the actual work since Caleb can't, and a social media manager. She shares recipes on her blog and films A LOT with her children. We've seen how this can go with the likes of Ruby Franke. She is small minded and judgemental; she meets up with a girl she went to school with in the supermarket and is certain that this woman is incredibly jealous of her. 

One of my problems with Natalie is that I think Caro Claire Burke gave her much more credit than many of these women are due. She is clever - she gets into Harvard for goodness sake - and very self aware. A lot of these women in these cults just aren't that clever. They have fully bought in to the ideologies of the cult - they genuinely believe that women are inferior to men, that they need to have as many children as possible, that their men are heads of the households, that women shouldn't preach in church, that they need to cover their elbows, knees, heads, lest they lead men astray etc. I don't think that Natalie really DID believe those things; she was just using them to get what she wanted out of life. 

Anyway, one day she wakes up, and it's 1855. She is stuck in the mid 19th century with children she doesn't recognise and a man that is surely not Caleb although he looks kind of similar. You'd think she'd love this - she gets to go back to all the things that she wants! But of course, she doesn't. It's incredibly inconvenient to live a life where there is no indoor plumbing, where all food has to be made from scratch, and where medicine is limited and there's a very real chance that one of your children might die. 

She tries to escape and can't. The book switches between times periods - Natalie is stuck in 1855 but then she recounts what has happened for the last twenty years back in modern times. It's obvious that the two strands will come together but I wasn't sure how exactly. And I don't think the pay off was worth it. It sort of felt like Caro Claire Burke had had this great idea to write a book about a woman like Ruby Franke or Ballerina Farm or whatever, but hadn't quite worked out what she wanted to say. I didn't hate the ending buuuut it was a bit odd. 

I also think that Caro Claire Burke does herself have some really anti feminist views and these peeped through fairly often. Obviously Natalie is anti feminist and obviously she's also an unreliable narrator but there were bits that weren't her point of view that were just really anti women. So I didn't like that. In all I'm giving this three out of five. It was interesting and I'm glad to have read it, and I would like more discussions about it, but I didn't love it.