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. 

Seven All Alone by Kirsty McKay - Review

I can't remember where I picked this up but I think it wasn't that long ago. It was one of those American type floppy paperbacks, weirdly, so I think that made me think it was set in the US until I started reading it. But it is set in Scotland which I was really glad to read. I like UK YA that is set in places other than London, or sometimes Brighton. It's one of my bug bears, actually, but that's a rant for another day. 

The main character in the book is Maggie. She's around sixteen years old. She, alongside six other kids in her class, was kidnapped ten years ago by their bus driver. He kept the seven kids in a cave and the other six managed to escape but Maggie didn't. He had her tied up and then he planned to kill the both of them. Instead, she had to watch his suicide over a cliff. She obviously had a lot of trauma and has been homeschooled for the past ten years.

But then she goes along on an Outward Bound type of trip alongside five of the kids who were kidnapped with her - Ben, Stephanie, Lawrence and Seb, Ant - and another girl whose name I've forgotten. Lawrence and Seb are twins. Ant is non binary and has ADHD and I thought this was written brilliantly even though it's only a side bit of plot. Maggie and Ben had been going out but have split up, and he is now going out with Stephanie. Maggie is determined to just ignore them and just get on with the trip. Her dad is a teacher and he is leading them, so even though she's back in the same area as where she was kidnapped before, she's trying to just have a good time. 

But immediately strange things happen. Maggie's dad and Ant are carried off in one of the rafts alongside quite a few of the supplies. Maggie wants to follow them downstream but it becomes clear she can't. The rest of the group decide to head to the cabin where the group was to be staying. Maggie has no choice but to follow. But then Stephanie gets injured when a rock falls on her and the others have to stay in the cabin and nurse her. There's a storm rolling in too. 

I liked the mystery but didn't love the outcome. I would have given it five starts but I thought the ending was just a bit meh. I didn't buy the motive. I did like the setting though, and all the teens involved. It is told in really believable ways and I could just imagine where everyone was and the wilderness. In all I'm giving this four out of five and would pick something else up by Kirsty in the future! 

My (Secret) YouTube Life by Charlotte Seager - Review

I had a sampler of this book's first chapter that I had clearly picked up forever and a day ago probably at a convention or something. It had got mixed up with my zines but when I sorted them all out - I catalogued them into a spreadsheet and now have over a thousand zines on shelves in my middle hallway - I found it again and read it. I was really intrigued by the first chapter so requested the book at the library. I haven't read anything by Charlotte Seager before but I would again!

The book is told from two points of view. Firstly is Lily. She is a YouTuber. She started off as a make up vlogger and now she's an influencer. She is inundated with free products etc. She lives with her rockstar boyfriend, Brian. She's living the perfect life, right? But Brian can be a total pain and Lily just sometimes wants to step off the rollercoaster. I think Lily is about twenty one so she's slightly out of the YA age group but I think her story will resonate with teenagers anyway. We all know vloggers/influencers like her, so it's easy to understand what it's like behind the scenes. Those people's lives are never as shiny and amazing as they look on social media!

Melissa is sixteen and she's a bit of a loner at school. She has one friend who is sensible and who I'm like, Melissa! Stop treating her badly! Melissa is obsessed with Lily and her channel and has tickets for a meet and greet with her. Melissa gets talking to some girls in her year and ends up hanging out with them. There's a boy they hang out with in the sixth form and Melissa quite fancies him and she ends up starting a blog or YouTube or whatever and pretends that he's her boyfriend. She gets deeper and deeper in and ends up not knowing up from down. It's easy to see how she ends up where she does.

I liked how the book got resolved and I thought Melissa matured a lot and made reparations when she needed to. I liked Lily and like her ending - I hope she was happy! I'm giving this four out of five and recommend it for teens. 

Nesting By Roisin O'Donnell - Review

My friend Stacey was raving about this book and wanted me to read it, so I requested it at the library and picked it up in the middle of May. I loved it and really recommend it. I would love to read something else by Roisin so will definitely be keeping an eye out for her!

The book is about Ciara, a young mum of two. She is married to Ryan and I think her kids are called Sophie and Ella but I'm writing this over a month later so I wouldn't swear to that. Ryan is abusive towards her. The book starts where the family goes to the seaside and he insists that the girls go swimming even though it's like April or something, and too cold. The girls are in wetsuits that are too small for them because Ciara has squirrelled away the money that Ryan gave her for new ones. The day is a disaster and when they're back at home she makes a split second decision to leave. She packs up a few things and gets in the car and leaves. 

She sleeps in the car overnight and the next day tries to find help. Ryan is obviously blowing up her phone demanding to know what has happened and begging her to come home. She gets housed in a hotel in Dublin city centre, where the fifth floor is taken up by people - women mostly - in similar situations, who are victims of Ireland's housing crisis. She tries to leave the country as her mum and sister are in Sheffield, where Ciara and her sister grew up, but Ryan has put a block on the kids' passports. Ciara has previously left Ryan for three weeks, but went back. 

In the hotel the inhabitants of the fifth floor aren't allowed to leave by the main staircase etc. Each room has a family in and everyone is trying to make the best of it. Ciara gets quite friendly with the woman next door and with one of the staff in the hotel, who is trying to learn English as a second language. 

Ciara is pregnant again which obviously adds to Ryan's rage. She talks about how he was violent when Ella was only a few months old and how she had to spend the whole night with her back against Ella's  bedroom door in case he turned more violent towards her. He has raped her at night previously, but he tells her that he's not abusive because he has never physically hit her. To the outside world, he looks like a catch. He's a civil servant and he attends mass regularly. His mother gets on at Ciara to go back to him too. 

It's not so much the leaving but it's the staying gone. Ciara has no way to support herself and Ryan has told her that she isn't allowed to teach in Ireland because she gained her degree in England - which turns out not to be true. Ryan uses the girls to manipulate her. It was done so well that the reader totally understood where Ciara was coming from and why she felt totally turned upside down.

I wanted her to succeed, of course. I wanted only the best for her and I wanted her to get money and find some friends and be able to be by herself, coparenting with Ryan I guess even though he was a dick towards her. I want this for all women in this situation and this is a brilliant book showing what can and does happen when a woman dares to leave. 

I really would recommend this and am giving it five out of five. 

 

The Surrogate Mother by Freida McFadden - Review

I've only read The Housemaid by Freida McFadden I think, and I liked it, so on a trip to The Works I picked this up along with two books by Megan Lally who I haven't even heard of, but I was intrigued by the premise of the books so I got all three for £7.50 or whatever it is. I will get to them soon....... probably. I picked this up towards the middle of June. It is compelling in the same way that The Housemaid is, but I didn't like it anywhere near as much. 

The protagonist is Abby. She is an advertising executive and works under a woman called Diana? Dinah? Something like that. The two of them get along, but Diana is a bit annoyed because Abby has been undergoing fertility treatments and stuff for years. Abby is married to Sam, who is a Maths professor at the local university. And he's very good looking. It's important that you know this because it's mentioned about 683 times. But he doesn't know he's good looking! That's important to know too. 

At the very beginning of the book Abby is having a baby shower at work. She's just thrilled it's finally her turn. She and Sam are adopting a baby from a pregnant teenager in like Texas or whatever. Abby is about to take a ton of parental leave and is looking forward to time with her baby. But then Sam arrives and tells her that the adoption has fallen through - the teenager has decided to keep the baby. Abby is obviously devastated. She's been through years of infertility and she's just fed up. 

Then her assistant, Monica, who is a very capable assistant, such a godsend, offers to be Abby's surrogate. She's young, she's probably fertile, and she is sure she can do it. Abby is thrilled and sets about convincing Sam. He takes a lot of convincing, but eventually he agrees to it and they all go to a clinic and Monica gets pregnant. She has signed a contract which I am entirely sure would not stand up in any court of law which guarantees Abby and Sam the baby when it's born.

But then weird things start to happen. Abby is sure that one of Monica's ultrasounds is at X time so she turns up then, only to find that she's late and the ultrasound has already happened, with Monica and Sam only there. Abby thinks it's the stress getting to her, but Monica has a terrible secret and it means Abby and the baby are in danger. 

I liked the premise but I thought the way it played out was just stupid. Abby made a bunch of stupid decisions and could have just opened her mouth and communicated with people, Sam especially, but she doesn't. I thought some of the twists were visible from space they were so obvious, and some of them just didn't make sense. I'm giving it three out of five. 

 

Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino - Review

I picked this up in Portal bookshop in York, which is a queer bookshop that also sells badges and fun stuff like that, and has a cafe upstairs and plenty of events happening - it's a really cool place to go. I visited in June with my friend Lucinda. I bought just this book, and picked it up soon after. I love Alex Gino and would love to have read everything they write, so I was glad to buy this. 

It's about a non binary kid called Sam who lives in New York with their mother and father I think. They are close friends with a queer family who live on a lower floor in their building - a woman, her non binary partner, and their baby. Sam also walks the dog of someone in the building, I don't remember her name but I loved her. From their bedroom window, Sam can see the Statue of Liberty and it's a statue that means a lot to them. Their best friend, TJ, is also non binary. They have a busy family that Sam is sometimes jealous of. 

At school, the kids get given an assignment to enter a competition. They have to write a report about who there should be a new statue of in their home borough of Staten Island. Some kids write about Henry Hudson - been done, coloniser, never even came to the area, Sam and TJ are bored of that one - and others write about Alexander Hamilton because one of them is vaguely related to him, which she shoehorns into every conversation haha. Sam and TJ don't know who to write about but eventually learn about Alice Austen, who was a photographer. She lived with a woman for decades and took quite frank photos of herself and her friends. I hadn't ever heard of her so it was interesting to learn more about her as Sam and TJ did too. 

I liked the book a lot and I think for a middle grade audience it was perfect. It explained a lot of things about queer identity and I liked how Sam came more to terms with themself and their place in the community. For me personally it was a bit so so, but I understand I am not the target audience and I think it would hit different with them. I will say that I didn't feel a particular emotional connection with Sam unlike in Melissa or Rick, which perhaps let it down a bit for me. But in all, a good book! 

As an aside but relevant to this post - I reviewed a queer picture book called Princess Pete for Global Comment, where I write occasionally. I wrote about why LGBTQIA+ books are essential for all kids, under the umbrella or not. You can read it here.