Afterlove by Tanya Byrne - Review

Where did I get it? I bought it in Waterstones a few weeks ago, as you can tell by the sticker. I follow Tanya on Twitter and have been intrigued by the premise of the book for ages, so I knew I wanted to get it soon. 

What's it about? Ashana is sixteen and goes to school in Whitehawk, Brighton. She has her best friend, Adara, and her family - Mum and dad and her sister Rosh. Mum is an A&E nurse and Dad works as a gardener. Rosh loves books. Ash is gay, and is out to Adara, and to her mum, and I think to Rosh, but she knows that her mum disapproves and isn't sure if her mum has told her dad. Ash has kissed girls, but they always end up ghosting her or otherwise breaking her heart. 

Then on a school trip Ashana meets Poppy. Poppy goes to Roedean school and lives in a huge house. The two start a relationship, and the first half of the book is the two of them falling in love and getting to know each other through jaunts round Brighton and a trip to London. Poppy is bright and beautiful and it's easy as a reader to see why Ash falls for her. 

But right at the beginning of the book we see Ash as a grim reaper, so we know she's going to die. And she does. In the After. I absolutely LOVED the last night she spent with Poppy and the way she's confused when she's first dead. The legend is that the last person who dies on New Year's Eve becomes the reaper for teens who died like they did, in the area. Ash meets Dev and Esen and Deborah and has to come to terms with being dead. But she's desperate to see Poppy again... 

What age range is it for? 14 plus 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? Yes, both Ash and Poppy are gay. 

Are any main characters people of colour? Yes, Ash's family is Indo-Guyanese, which I really liked, I liked the cultural depiction of Ash's family. 

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? I don't think so, although Ash's dad has been ill. It's not mentioned much. 

Is there any sex stuff? Yes, it's lovely but not graphic 

Are drugs mentioned or used? No I don't think so. 

Is there any talk of death? Yes, obviously, and it is somewhat graphic 

Are there swear words? Yes, I loved this actually, it was very real. 

 

What criticisms do I have? Having thought about it, my only criticisms are as an adult reader of the book, and I don't think that's fair. It's a very good YA novel. 

Would I recommend the book? Yes absolutely. 

Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? Just because I bought it recently and wanted to read it. 

 

What do I think of the cover? It's absolutely gorgeous! It's foiled too, so pretty. 

 

What other books is it like? I'm drawing a blank, sorry 

How many stars? Four out of five

 

Where is the book going now? I'll keep it!

Floored: A Novel - Review

Where did I get it? Netgalley, so thank you very much to Pan Macmillan for allowing me it 

What's it about? There has been so much hype around this book which really made me want to read it! It is a collaborative novel written by seven of the best voices in UK Young Adult literature - Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson, and Eleanor Wood. I think I've read books by all these authors except for Lisa Williamson, so I knew I had excellent writing in store. 

What happens is that six teenagers happen to meet one day in Manchester. They are all, for some reason or another, at UKB (basically the BBC). Two are there for an internship, one is there to deliver a parcel. They all get into a lift at the same time, and at the last second a postman does too, pushing a trolley. And then, between floors, he dies, and the teens have to work out what to do next. 

We then see the six throughout the next few years as they meet up on the same day each year, and as their lives progress. It is such an interesting concept for a book!

The six teens are as follows: Dawson, who used to be on TV but who isn't "cute" anymore and isn't sure if he'll work again, Kaitlyn, who was a fan of Dawson's and who has just been diagnosed with Stargardt disease which means she will lose her sight, Velvet, who lives in a hotel in Bridlington and is trying her best to fit in, Sasha, who is working for her overbearing dad and also trying her best, Hugo, who is rich, whose dad is an MP, and who is full of himself, and finally Joe, who dreams of more than working in the local biscuit factory. Each author wrote one of the teens each, and then the 7th one wrote the narrator bits at the end of each year, which told us loads more of the action.

I loved each of the characters, I thought they were very distinct from each other and well drawn. I liked that at least three of them came from working class families; I felt like class was a big theme within the book actually. I liked the stuff around disability, both with Kaitlyn and with someone else's family member, which I won't spoiler. I liked the stuff around sexuality, which I also won't spoiler but which I felt was dealt with in a really good way.

I don't have a clue which author wrote each part. I hope we do get to find out! I thought the person writing the narrator parts had the most difficult job, but they were well written parts which sat nicely alongside the other more personal parts. I am talking about writing a collaborative novel myself with a friend, so I really liked to see how Person 1's point of view segued into Person 2's, and so on, and how that was done without a lot of repetition.

I also liked how we first saw everyone at 15/16, on work experience, and then saw them get older, saw them grow into adults. I thought the character progression was shown really well.

What age range is it for? 15+ 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? Yes, I am utterly not spoiling it though because I loved the way this unfolded. 

Are any main characters people of colour? Sasha is mixed race - I would have liked a bit more exposition here really, but I did like the descriptions of her relationship with her mother. 

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? Yes, as I've described above 

Is there any sex stuff? Yes, a little. It is slightly graphic. 

Are drugs mentioned or used? I think so, I think there's some mention but not much 

Is there any talk of death? Yes. The death in the lift isn't very graphic but may be upsetting, and there is some other discussion. 

Are there swear words? Yeah. 

What criticisms do I have? Almost none. There were a couple of inconsistencies but honestly I'm putting them down to trying to co-ordinate seven people and their writing! (And they may be ironed out in the final version). Some reviews have said they thought the novel was too superficial. I don't agree. I think it is simple and simply told, but I don't think it's superficial. There was lots of stuff to dig into if you wanted. 

Would I recommend the book? Very much absolutely! It's a really fun book. 

Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? As I said I'd seen a lot of the hype and I wanted to see if it lived up to it. It does - it most definitely does! 

What other books is it like? I honestly don't know. It is simply told like a lot of Non Pratt's book, but it has shades of all the other writers too. It reminded me a bit of Alice Oseman, too. 

How many stars? Five out of five. Read it, read it now!

Heart Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne - Review

Where did I get it? I bought it at YA Shot in October, and got it signed by Tanya - she was lovely! 

What's it about? Emily Koll is on remand in the psychiatric ward of a Young Offenders Institute and is writing her story down in a notebook which she's going to leave for the next inhabitant of her room. Her dad is a gangster and killed a policeman. The daughter of the policeman, Juliet, then stabbed Emily's dad (but not fatally). Juliet was put into Witness Protection and Emily had to go and live in Spain with her uncle. 

Emily decides to exact revenge and gets a false identity and goes to the same college as Juliet, to do the same A levels. They become friends, and Juliet starts going out with a boy called Sid. Sid and Emily become friends too, and a few times it almost spills over into romance. 

We see Emily in the hospital too, and some of her friends there, and her conversations with the doctor. I felt like some of these bits were a bit long, actually; she seemed to just always get angry with Dr Gilyard and I don't feel it was always justified. I also thought that the ending - the supposed revenge - came apart a bit too quickly. 

In tone, the book reminded me a lot of Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher, which I read before I started this blog. In that, the main character writes to a man on death row to confess something awful which happened between her and two boys, who are brothers. It has the effect of censoring the prose, which I felt happened here too. Emily is an unreliable narrator - something which she freely admits to early on in the notebook - and as such it's hard for the reader to discern the truth. It's hard to know how much happened because she wanted revenge on Juliet, and how much happened because Emily was in love with Sid. 
What age range is it for? 14+

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? No

Are any main characters people of colour? Yes, Sid is and I think Juliet is too, but I didn't entirely catch her description

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? Not really, although obviously Emily is in a psychiatric ward

Is there any sex stuff? No

Are drugs mentioned or used? Prescription drugs, yes

Is there any talk of death? Yes, but it's not explicit

Are there swear words? Yes, a few

Would I recommend the book? Yes

How many stars? 7 out of 10. It isn't bad.