Review: The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr

The Truth and Lies of Ella Black is the second book I have read by Emily Barr. The One Memory of Flora Banks came out about a year ago and it was a book I greatly enjoyed, with its snowy remote setting. (You can read my review of that here.) The Truth and Lies of Ella Black focusses on teenager Ella, who struggles with her dark side while trying to appear picture perfect to her parents. When she is taken out of school one afternoon completely unannounced and flown to Brazil with her parents, Ella understandably has a lot of questions, none of which are being answered. There are secrets in her past that Ella knows nothing about, but while on the run she begins to slowly uncover the truth. 

We spend much of the book in the heat of Rio as Ella struggles to make sense of her life so far. It's a far cry from the snowy north of The One Memory of Flora Banks, but there are similarities in the unravelling of lies surrounding both Flora and Ella. Both girls' parents have lied in a bid to protect their daughters and both girls end up breaking out on their own, battling against their own brains to figure out what is true and what has been fabricated in their lives.

Much like Flora, Ella's journey is made all the more easy with the kindness of strangers and it seems luck is on her side to keep danger mostly out of her path. This is maybe a little unrealistic, and the same criticism could be applied to Ella's instant falling in love with an American boy from her hotel with whom she spends one night out partying. However the stakes feel high and so all emotions feel justifiably heightened, with the tension and peril of the plot keeping the pace up all the way through. I found myself wanting to get back to the story and quite honestly thinking to myself "right, what is this idiot doing to do next" as Ella went from bad decision to bad decision. 

I really enjoy Emily Barr's writing, so I'm looking forward to what comes next. She was recently in India doing research for the next book so I think we are safe to assume we'll be getting another great use of an interesting location. 

I received a copy of The Truth and Lies of Ella Black from Penguin Random House, which was very nice of them! This is an honest review, promise. 

Review!: The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart

The Sacrifice Box is the second book by Martin Stewart. I loved his first book Riverkeep, the review of which you can read here, so I was very keen to get my dirty mitts on this one! I went along to the book launch in Glasgow, heard Martin speak about the writing process and read from the first chapter, annnd I got my book signed ooh. It was nice to finally meet Martin (he warned me that this one is very different from Riverkeep!) and join in the excitement of The Sacrifice Box.

The Sacrifice Box is set on a small British island in the early to mid '80s. We follow clever teenage boy Sep, who longs to go to boarding school on the main land and leave behind his lonely friendless island life. He is no longer friends with the gang from the halcyon preteen summer of '82; popular guy Mack, dimwitted Arkle, farmer's daughter Lamb, and bully's target Hadley. The gang are brought back together after the offerings they made to a mysterious stone box deep in the woods that summer seem to be coming back to haunt them, along with a pair of scary crows.

This book draws on nostalgia for all things analogue- there are plenty of mixtape cassettes- and teenage horror classics- there is a good portion of biking around through forests. It has been compared to E.T. and The Goonies and to more recent 80s nostalgia horror adventures It and Stranger Things. The Sacrifice Box definitely stands up to these comparisons, delivering a suspenseful, gore-filled, scary teenage gang horror adventure. It reminded me of Trollhunters by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus too.

Martin Stewart's writing is so vivid in its description that you find yourself right there in the stuffy classroom with Sep feeling the tension gather, or winding along the path deep into the forest with the gang ready for a zombie animal to jump out at you at any moment. The cast of characters are just as vivid and fleshed out, and I rooted for them to make it through the night as a gang without getting said flesh viciously mauled by zombie animals or leaving their powerful friendship behind again. 

I really enjoyed this one and I am intrigued to see where Martin takes his writing next!

A few pics from the Glasgow book launch at the Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street:

Books I read in November!: The Amber Spyglass, La Belle Sauvage, Genuine Fraud, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Hiyyyyya! Starting the year by being behind on last year's blogposts woohoo! I better crack on with it so I can get on to the December reads too and then 2017 best of then some individuals reviews eeeek!

So in November I continued my His Dark Materials reread and finished reading The Amber Spyglass, which was brilliant and I enjoyed being back with all those wheel creatures and Dr Mary Malone and seeing Lyra and Will through to the very troublesome end of their journey! I could finally move on to The Book of Dust Volume One: La Belle Sauvage and it was wonderful. I loved Malcolm's world built up around the pub and visiting the nuns and school and on his trusty boat. So much of the plot movement was through the urgency to change the many smelly nappies of a baby and somehow it worked so well. Very much anticipating the volume two! As you might imagine I was a bit stuck with what to read next after 4 Philip Pullman books in a row, but luckily I had the newest E. Lockhart book on kindle. Genuine Fraud was gripping and clever and kept me guessing the whole way through. I also listened to Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge on audiobook, which was immensely educating and an all round essential read for everyone and probably white people in particular!

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

See you soon for some December reads and mooooooooore!

Review! The Undercover Princess by Connie Glynn

Undercover Princess is the first book by Connie Glynn, noodlerella on youtube, and the first part in The Rosewood Chronicles series. Our main character is the rather cutely named Lottie Pumpkin who earns herself a scholarship/bursary place at Rosewood Hall, a very prestigious private boarding school for heirs and royalty. Lottie has worked very hard to fulfil her mother's dying wish that she go to Rosewood Hall, so she leaves behind her quiet life in Cornwall with her slightly evil, possibly just antagonistic, step mum and best boy-pal, to attend the fancy school.

Lottie is also very into princesses, pink, and tiaras and much to her surprise ends up sharing a dorm room with an actual princess, the mysterious Ellie Wolf, Crown Princess of Maradova. Ellie has not yet been presented publicly as the heir to the throne, so she is attempting to keep her royalty undercover. As gossip spreads about there being a princess at school, Lottie ends up pretending to be the undercover princess, to help her new pal out, and to indulge a little in her fairytale princess dream.

I was really intrigued by the concept of an undercover princess, and as a fan of The Princess Diaries I was right up for the modern-European-princess-at-high-school set up (hello Princess of Maradova/Princess of Genovia.) And as a lover of She's The Man I was all for some undercover at boarding school action. There is a fun gang of friends from day 1 at Rosewood, with various geniuses, heirs to fortunes, snobby posh girls and flamboyant boys. We are introduced to the history of the school, the various teachers, classmates and their bodyguards, various secret passages. There is a lot to enjoy in this book and I found myself wanting to get to bed to read more every night. 

Howwwwwwwweverrrrrr, there was a certain first-drafty feeling to the whole thing. There were various typos and rogue line breaks in my review copy- which is fine, it's an unedited proof- but I rarely see so many in a bound review copy. I felt like certain details weren't given time to be explored or were presented and then forgotten about. We only spend a couple of pages at Lottie's home, so those step mum and best friend dynamics aren't super solidly set up. Lottie climbs through some kind of secret tunnel in an art cupboard and overhears a conversation. I reckon she could've overheard a conversation without a secret tunnel, or let's use that secret tunnel a whole lot more, also why is there a secret tunnel in the art cupboard? Let's talk about that secret tunnel! Lottie also walks through a river and goes underwater to find another secret tunnel with Ellie? They get all wet?? Nobody, including the teachers, knows who the secret princess is, but all the teachers know that Lottie is there on a bursary, so presumably they've figured she isn't the princess after all? Lottie gets her phone back at the Christmas holidays (there's a no-phones-during-term-time rule) but has no signal in her room, and then at the end of the school year talks about finally getting her phone back and making a call in her room. I mean that is pernickety but it bothered me! What was all that code breaking about eh? Was it just about the founder? I thought Binal was letting them know that she knew about the princess thing? No? Also the headmaster taking a back seat and letting his female colleagues be the voice of the school?? Give them the headmaster job then surely?? 

Overall, I actually thought it was a great idea, but I just wish it had felt a little less rushed. Maybe a little bit of restructuring and attention to detail could've ironed out some of the obvious issues. I thought the pacing was pretty good, we raced through the school year so we got a fair bit of development of Lottie's new friendships. I thought the world building of the school and all its intricacies was cool, although I lost sense of this as the book progressed. And naming the role of royal stand in 'Portman' just HAS to be because of Natalie Portman's role as Padme/Princess Amidala in Star Wars riiiiight? I thought that was clever! I'm hoping the next books in this series get more of a polish, and that Connie Glynn gets a bit more practiced at a flowing plot and attention to detail. In fact it made me think about the attention to detail, or lack thereof, in my own novel first draft, so it was a learning experience really!

Undercover Princess is a great concept, but felt like a bit of a first draft to me.

I received a review copy of Undercover Princess from the publisher in exchange for an honest review, which this is!

Autumnal Reads! Bonfire, The End We Start From, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, His Dark Materials, The Bear and the Nightingale, Comet in Moominland

Hello and Happy Autumn to you! I come to you from the damp depths of October, barrelling fast down its flood waters into the chilly chasm of November's dark embrace. It's been raining a lot, but when the rain stops for a minute you can look around and see the many pretty orange and red and brown leaves all falling from the trees into crunchy/mushy piles. The squirrels are busy squirrelling away nuts and the crows all seem to be up to something... so it's about time we all retreated indoors where the hot chocolate is only 2 mins in the microwave away, the heating is on, the fluffy socks have been dug out from the back of the drawer and a fine stack of Autumnal Reads awaits! 

I may be a little delirious from the v bad cold I currently have, but I'm not letting that hamper my efforts to recommend some cosy reading choices. And with the clocks going back you might as well use your extra hour in bed to enjoy some cosy reading time! 

Bonfire  is the first novel by Krysten Ritter, star of such excellent television shows as The B in Apartment 33 and Jessica Jones. This story takes place in the small town of our protagonist Abby Williams' childhood, where a 10 year old mystery disappearance has plagued the minds of every townsperson. Back as a grown up and a lawyer investigating the potential water pollution of the local massive plastics firm, Abby digs up both the town's and her own past. This gripping thriller is perfect to keep you curled up where it's safe and warm indoors. 

The End We Start From is the first book by Megan Hunter. Indulge those dooms day thoughts with this apocalyptic novella, sparsely written but somehow with such a vivid sense of place and emotion. It's a fairly intense read, but perfect for reading in one sitting while avoiding the howling winds of autumn.

His Dark Materials is the wonderful series by Phillip Pullman. Shroud yourself in the comfort and magnificence of this wonderful world, or should I say multiple worlds. Yes I should. I've been rereading the series in preparation for the return of Lyra's Oxford in the new The Book of Dust series. I've got my copy of part  one, La Belle Sauvage, now but thank the actual lord I decided to reread the others as I had entirely forgotten almost everything. To be fair to myself The Amber Spyglass did get published when I was 10, and I have a signed first edition of it, so odds are that was when I last read it! I really recommend making this series part of your autumnal reading line up.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is probably more wintery than autumnal given that it is set in winter in the Russian wilderness. There's plenty of exploration in the forest, horse whispering, rubbish step mothers, and most importantly magic and folk tales. Maybe save this one for the autumn to winter transitional period. Best served under blanket with mug of hot chocolate.

Comet in Moomimland is a wonderful moomin adventure story by Tove Jansson. With a comet headed for Moominvalley, much adventure and excitement ensues. I have a lovely new Sort Of Books collectors edition which has the original 1950s/60s cover designs. There are a few new editions which you can gaze at admiringly in between reading! I'm hoping to get my mitts on all of them.













We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is a very creepy novella about sisters living in the big house outside of a small town. Their whole family was poisoned to death over dinner several years ago, and the sisters have continued living in the family house, hiding from the gossip and hostility of the people in town. It is so strange and creepy and brilliant and includes a 10/10 cat character. Read this one in candle light with cat on lap or curled up nearby. 

Books I read in September! Now I Rise, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Hunger, The Doll's Alphabet, Men Explain Things to Me, Letters to Klara

Helllloooooo! I read a lot of vvvvvv good books in September. Forreal all of them were really good and tip top as far as I'm concerned. The bar was set high at the beginning of the month with Now I Rise by Kiersten White, the sequel to And I Darken. I loved part one so was anticipating enjoying part two v much which I did! It was great being back in the Ottoman/Byzantine empires with Lada and Radu and Mehmed. It was fast paced, but v long, so after that I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, which I think is classed as a novella. It was strange and creepy and had 10/10 cat best friend action. I used my audible credit this month on Hunger by Roxane Gay and oh wow was it intense and draining but so worth reading/listening to. 

Next I was in the mood for more creepiness and some short stories so I picked The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova off my to-be-read pile. It's a beautiful blue Fitzcarraldo Edition and was just as strange and creepy as I hoped. My lunchtime reading for the month was Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. I tend to read a non-fiction book over lunch breaks as I'm more likely to take it in during the day, so I decided to finnnnnnally read this. I have a really nice blue Haymarket Books edition, and I enjoyed the contents too! I rounded off the month with this year's new Tove Jansson translation from Sort Of Books, Letters to Klara. I love Tove Jansson's short stories so this was a pleasure to read! 

What a nice selection of books eh? A YA historical fiction novel, a creepy novella, a body memoir, more creepiness in short story form, some feminist non fiction, and some lovely Finnish short stories too!

Now I Rise by Kiersten White

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Hunger by Roxane Gay

The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

Letters to Klara by Tove Jansson

Review! The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give is a powerful novel by Angie Thomas. An unapologetic look at race based violence in the United States, centred around the aftermath of a police shooting of an unarmed black teenager. Starr is the central character- a teenage girl who navigates the worlds of her hood neighbourhood home and her private school education. After her childhood friend Khalil is shot by a police officer while Starr is in the passenger seat, she has to work out how to find strength to speak out, be a strong witness, and figure out a way to be brave in the face of tragedy.

It's amazing and important and has been topping the NYT bestseller list for about a million weeks. The events in The Hate U Give are an indictment of the crazy times we're living in. If you haven't read it yet then really what are you waiting for. Here are six great quotes:

1. “Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared, Starr,” she says. “It means you go on even though you’re scared. And you’re doing that.”   

2. “I never know which Starr I should be. I can use some slang, but not too much slang, some attitude, but not too much attitude, so I’m not a “sassy black girl.” I have to watch what I say and how I say it, but I can’t sound “white.”  

3. “Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right”  

4. “People like us in situations like this become hashtags, but they rarely get justice.”  

5. “I hope none of them ask about my spring break. They went to Taipei, the Bahamas, Harry Potter World. I stayed in the hood and saw a cop kill my friend.”  

6. “That's the hate they're giving us, baby, a system designed against us. That's Thug Life” 

Books I read in July!: The Hate U Give, The End We Start From, The Good Immigrant, The Island at the End of Everything, The Dreamsnatcher, The Faraway Nearby

No you're behind on your blogging! No you're only getting round to your July reads post in September!.... I've been busy ok! July was a very good month of reading. I read the incredible and much hyped and not disappointing The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I saw Leena Norms recommend Megan Hunter's The End We Start From in this video and went to buy it and read it in about two days. In audiobooks in July I listened to The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla, which is a brilliant collection of essays by British Immigrants. I got my middle grade fix this month with The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and The Dreamsnatcher by Abi Elphinstone. To cap it all off I finally finished reading The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, and I wrote a blog post about it and Hayley Long's The Nearest Faraway Place which you can read here!

The Hate U Give- Angie Thomas

The End We Start From- Megan Hunter

The Good Immigrant- Nikesh Shukla

The Island at the End of Everything- Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Dreamsnatcher- Abi Elphinstone

The Faraway Nearby- Rebecca Solnit 

I'll prob review a couple of these properly soon so keep your eyes peeled! You should go read this post on The Faraway Nearby/The Nearest Faraway Place though. Also all these books start with 'The" so thats fun! 

Review! The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit and The Nearest Faraway Place by Hayley Long

I recently finished Rebecca Solnit's The Faraway Nearby, after dipping in and out of it for about 6 months, before reading The Nearest Faraway Place by Hayley Long, which I was sent a review copy of from the publisher.  I didn't notice until much later the mirroring in their titles.

The Faraway Nearby is part memoir, part cultural history book, in which Solnit examines her relationship to her mother, who is deteriorating with dementia. She looks at how stories are told, how humans connect and how monsters are depicted. There is a quote on the back of the edition I have from the Finical Times calling it "an exhilarating form of literary cartography." It's a beautiful, and complicated book. 

The Nearest Faraway Place is a young adult novel telling the story of love between two brothers. After a car crash in Manhattan kills their parents, Dylan finds himself in the role of protector over his younger brother. Griff navigates his life as an orphan, who is moved from New York to Wales to live with their mum's cousin, with Dylan there being as supportive as he can be while his brother seems unable to speak about the tragedy. This too is a beautiful, but heartbreaking book.

The title of The Faraway Nearby is inspired by artist Georgia O'Keefe. After moving from New York to New Mexico, she would sign off letters to friends with "from the faraway nearby." The Nearest Faraway Place is an instrumental Beach Boys track from the album 20/20, which the characters in Long's book seek comfort from. 

Solnit writes on p.108,

"It was a way to measure physical and psychic geography together. Emotion has its geography, affection is what is nearby, within the boundaries of the self. You can be a thousand miles from the person next to you in bed or deeply invested in the survival of a stranger on the other side of the world." 

 Long's character Dylan says to his brother on p.305, 

"'As long as I'm in there,' I said, gently touching Griff's forehead, 'I'm always, always here. That's how close I am. It's not like getting on the train and going to Shrewsbury or Birmingham or anything. You only have to think about me to cover the distance.'"

These are two entirely different books for entirely different demographics but they're speaking to the same themes; of closeness to other humans, of the nearness of death, of the distance from those living nearest to us, of the nearness of those no longer living, or facing death. 

I've suddenly realised the value in reading broadly- I'm feeling pretty smug that I'm adult who reads both young adult fiction and literary memoir, among other things. There is a lot to be gained, which is something I'll need to remember when it's taking months to read a Rebecca Solnit book and only a few days to read a Hayley Long book- there is value in both experiences and sometimes those values align perfectly. 

The Nearest Faraway Place came out on July 13th from Hot Key Books- I received a review copy of this book. The Faraway Nearby is out from Granta Books- I just plain bought this one.

Top 6 Reads for a Rainy Summer

This summer has not being very good at sun shining and warmness and general summeryness, but it has got the whole raining business down. Rain rain rain and storms too. Also cold, so cold. I live in Glasgow, Scotland so I suppose it's to be expected, however I thought I'd gather a list of good rainy summer reading. These books set the perfect mood for rainy reading in the long daylight hours. Perfectly suitable for reading on that *one* sunny day too! In fact on Monday it was a scorching 25 degrees and I read in the park with actual bare legs. And today, Wednesday, has brought the heaviest, most movie like rain I've seen. So I know what I'm talking about when it comes to rainy summers. Without further ado, here are 6 (ok 7 because I added a bonus one and didn't want to make it a top 7 for some reason!) of my reading recommendations for a rainy summer:

Wild Song- Janis Mackay

Wild Song by Janis Mackay, is a beautiful novel set in Finland. Niilo is a 13-year-old boy who is sent off to live at a young offenders centre on a little island due to his thievery and general bad behaviour. Niilo has to overcome his fear of the sea, with the help of a kind councillor and a seal friend. Perfect rainy summer reading, where you can imagine yourself swimming off with the seals and learning to find your own wild song. You can find my original review here.

Pond- Claire-Louise Bennett

Pond is a collection of short stories and essays by Claire-Louise Bennett. Beauty, wisdom, whim, and humour are found in the mundanity of a quiet life in an old cottage in a small town. Claire-Louise Bennett's writing is beautiful and full of much better words than I could possibly muster. Here are some beautiful words about watching a storm from the bath, which makes for perfect rainy summer reading:

"And then, from there, it was possible, unavoidable really, to listen to the storm going around and around, and I knew it was an old one that had come back- it seemed to know exactly where it was and there was such intimacy in its movement and in the sound it made as it went along and around and around. Yes, I thought, you know these mountains and the mountains are familiar with you also."

Maybe read Pond in the bath while it rains outside- especially if your bath is next to a window! My full review of Pond is here. 

I Capture the Castle- Dodie Smith

From the iconic opening sentence, "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" right through to the end, this wonderful novel is evocative and charming and is the perfect rainy summer read. Cassandra is seventeen and lives in a tumbledown castle with her family, who is living in poverty due to her father's inability to write a follow up to his first successful novel. She writes about family, falling in love for the first time, and the rich potential suitors who come into their lives and shake things up. I suggest perhaps reading this book sitting in the kitchen sink, especially if that sink is by a window with a view to the summer rain outside. 

Spellbook of the Lost and Found- Moira Fowley-Doyle

Spellbook of the Lost and Found is a wonderful and magical book about the havoc wreaked by the titular spellbook, found in an old oak tree. The setting is wonderfully evocative, with all the closeness and tension of the small town, the dark and magical nooks and crannies of the old forest, and the eeriness of the abandoned housing estate. There is a real sense of stormy summer weather, and in fact I read this book by the fire in a little cottage by the sea in June, while the wind and rain battered the windows. I reviewed Spellbook last month, you can read the full review here.

Aurabel- Laura Dockrill

Aurabel by Laura Dockrill is the follow up to Lorali, a fish out of water mermaid tale from 2015. We're back in the sea two years after the events of Lorali. The politics of the underwater world, the Whirl, are becoming complicated and complex after Princess Lorali's departure to live on land. This book is set under the sea and it doesn't get much more rainy than that! Crack open a window and you'll really feel like you're under water.

Riverkeep- Martin Stewart

Should I stop going on about this book? Am I really putting it in another Top 5 post? You betcha! The story follows fifteen-year-old Wulliam, who is about to inherit his father's role as Riverkeep, which involves tending to the river's ice in winter and a lot of fishing out corpses too. A dark spirit possesses his father one night, which sets Wulliam on a journey away from his one know corner of the river, to row down the river's mouth and hopefully find a cure in the belly of a giant sea creature called the mormorach. I recommend getting yourself a hot drink, curling up in a blanket with a view of the pouring rain, maybe light a candle, and pretend it's winter already! Full review from last year here.

Bonus: Our Dark Duet- V.E. Schwab

The second and final in the Monsters of Verity series, Our Dark Duet picks up almost half a year after Kate Harker's departure from Verity in This Savage Song. She is now living in Prosperity, hunting monsters there, where the monster epidemic is still very much underground and mostly unknown by the population. Kate witnesses the aftermath of a an attack by a new kind of monster, and after an encounter with this strange creature, she finds herself leaving her new friends and heading back to Verity to warn them of this new danger. There is a very urban, gritty, city vibe to this series and I can attest to its suitability to rainy summer reading as I read This Savage Song during last year's rainy cottage holiday and Our Dark Duet on this year's rainy cottage holiday!