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” 

Review!: The One Memory Of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

The One Memory of Flora Banks is the thrilling story of 17-year-old Flora who has suffered with anterograde amnesia since the age of 10. Unable to make any new memories, Flora has to be reminded each day of her age and situation with the help of her parents. One night, at the party of her best friend, who she has known since her childhood, Flora kisses someone she shouldn't and the next day she can remember it and their whole conversation. Convinced this kiss holds the answer to unlocking her memory for good, she takes meticulous notes (in notebooks, and in pen all over her hands and arms) to remind herself of her memory revelation and ends up figuring out how to get in touch with the boy she kissed, who has left the country for icier climbs. 

I absolutely adored Flora, and her determination to find herself and her memories under the fog of medication her parents keep her under. The truth slowly emerges from a tangle of lies built up to 'protect' her and as things become clearer for Flora they do for the reader too. I've seen some other reviewers struggling with the repetitive nature of the narrative as Flora's memory resets and she has to follow her trail of notes to regain her grasp of her reality, however this was not a problem for me and I actually enjoyed the tension it brought.

The book opens at the close on an arctic icy cold snowy mountainside with Flora alone and feeling angry, although she's not sure why, before the story goes back in time to take us back up to this point, which is an all the more powerful storytelling tool with Flora's lack of a memory. The setting is incredible, if a little farfetched, but if you're on board with this adventure it is a total thrill ride of a story. Oh, and it's out now!

I received a copy of The One Memory of Flora Banks from Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review, honest!

Review!: The Graces by Laure Eve

The Graces by Laure Eve is a witch story set in a small seaside town, where The Graces are a rich, successful, beautiful family rumoured to be witches. Siblings Fenrin, Thalia, and Summer Grace have a magnetism to them that keeps most of the high school population fascinated and enthralled. Our protagonist River is obsessed possibly more than anyone else, and being relatively new to the school and town has been learning all she can about the family and their rumoured magic. River has had a troubled past and when she finds herself welcomed in to their inner circle she is desperate to discover the secret of their magic to find out if it can help her fix past mistakes.

There is very little actual magic, which I think has disappointed a lot of people, but I found it to all the more enthralling to spend the book trying to figure out whether magic is even real in this world. There are loads of moments where you wonder if they really are witches at all. River is fairly unlikeable at times but also sympathetic; she's obviously very messed up by her past and her own relationship with the idea of magic. I very quickly found the beautiful Graces siblings to have the same sort of mystique that the beautiful Cullen siblings have, especially in their simultaneous transcendence and compliance in the high school popularity hierarchy. This is not Twilight though, it's much darker, the stakes feel much higher, and River may be much more mysterious and dangerous than all the Graces put together.

Don't go in expecting full blown magic and fantasy- think garden variety high school wiccans and then prepare to be surprised.

Review! Blame by Simon Mayo

Blame is a high concept dystopian novel set in a version of the UK where the idea of 'heritage crimes' has taken hold. Heritage crimes are crimes committed by your parents or grandparents that have gone unpunished due to their deaths or disappearances leaving you to serve their time. Ant and her little brother Mattie are siblings stuck in a family prison with their foster parents, all serving time for the crimes of their parents. These non criminals are kept in a separate, but connected prison from those serving time for their own crimes, but with tensions brewing across the London prisons Ant and Mattie realise they might have a chance to break out. 

This is an intense and thrilling novel, which carefully sets up the dystopian premise and then causes a riot for all hell to break lose. The relationship between Ant and Mattie is beautifully written, with their Haitian heritage shown through the little bits of creole language they speak to each other. The pace really picks up about half way through, just as you were getting comfortable in the prison setting, lurching you out on the run. 

The media elements were used in a really interesting way, with televised propaganda depicting the heritage crime inmates as deserving of their treatment, brainwashing the public into agreeing with the inhuman practice. This was definitely reminiscent of The Hunger Games for me. The drones used for surveillance and spying were an all too familiar concept too. The 'strap' heritage crime inmates must wear creates a heavy, uncomfortable physical burden and mark on the person to accompany the mental burden they must endure too. 

A powerful, face paced, thriller with an incredibly fierce, loyal, and moral protagonist. 

I received a review copy of Blame from Penguin Random House in return for an honest review. 

Books I read in August!: The Yellow Room, What's a Girl Gotta Do?, Lady Susan, Nina is Not OK, Blame.

After a prolific July full of reading, August was always going to struggle to keep up. But I did manage to read from crrrrackers! I was really looking forward to delving into Jess Vallance's The Yellow Room after enjoying the super creepy Birdy last year. I also read the third in Holly Bourne's Spinster Club trilogy, What's a Girl Gotta Do?, which did not disappoint. I greatly enjoyed a Jane Austen novella, Lady Susan, and my audiobook of the month was Shappi Khorsandi's Nina is Not OK. I can confirm Nina is definitely not OK, and neither am I after listening to her story! Lastly I read Blame by Simon Mayo, which has its very own review here!

The Yellow Room

I read Jess Vallance's Birdy last year, which was a great book and very creepy, so I was very much looking forward to reading The Yellow Room to see how sinister its plot would be. The story follows Anna, a sixteen-year-old, who receives a letter one day from her estranged father's girlfriend, informing her of his death. After meeting Edie, the girlfriend, to discuss her father's death Anna is soon spending more time with Edie than with her school friends, confiding in her secrets that she has not told anyone else. Anna's relationship with the creepy, blackmailing Leon is at the heart of her greatest secret and their fraught encounters are chilling. Anna is struggling to solve her problems by herself and turns to Edie for help, the answers in the end however seem to lie with the mothers. Definitely dark, creepy, and chilling, but with an awareness and respect for mental health and illness. Definite must read. Can't wait to see what Jess Vallance writes next!

What's Girl Gotta Do?

Part three in the Spinster Club series, this time from Lottie's point of view as she embarks on a major feminist project, calling out every instance of sexism she sees in daily life. Lottie documents the project with the help of film student Will, who does not identify as a feminist and who soon becomes the object of a very confusing crush for Lottie. Evie and Amber are there helping Lottie out of course, but as the project gains traction online and the trolls start getting under her skin, Lottie struggles with motives for putting herself through such a draining experience. Is it keeping quiet and following the rules that will get Lottie into Cambridge, as her parents are insisting, or is it being unapologetically herself and committing to the project. A brilliant conclusion to the Spinster Club series. I'm in denial that this is the last we'll hear of the Spinster Club and hoping and praying they'll be back for more soon! Tip top stuff from Holly Bourne once again.

Lady Susan

This little Jane Austen novella is part of the Penguin Little Black Classics and a very fun read. A short epistolary novel documenting a colourful cast of characters mostly concerning themselves with the behaviour of a one Lady Susan Vernon, a young widow looking to secure husbands for both herself and her 16-year-old daughter Frederica. It was recently adapted for film by Whit Stillman, starring Kate Beckinsale as Lady Susan and Chloe Sevigny as Mrs Johnson, and definitely captures the fun and humour of the book. I might have to read some more of Jane Austen's juvenilia (new favourite word) as this was a very enjoyable read.




Nina is Not OK

I listened to Nina is Not Ok on audiobook, read by the author Shappi Khorsandi and wow it was an intense experience. 17-year-old Nina is in denial about her drinking problem, but her drunken exploits are becoming more and more dangerous. After her boyfriend Jamie goes off on his gap year and immediately gets a new girlfriend, Nina finds herself struggling to get through a day of college without having a drink. The wrong guys 'help' Nina home after she is thrown out of a club one night and the gap in her memory between leaving the club and finding herself in a cab home with her knickers in her hand soon weighs seriously heavy on her mind. There is this really unsettling mix of funny and light escapades with dark and harrowing trauma as Nina continues to make terrible decisions and spiral out of control, with her mum and step dad really helpfully deciding to move to Germany and leave her in London in the middle of her A Levels year. Poor Nina! Shappi Khorsandi's narration on audiobook was brilliant, and I'd definitely recommend experiencing the book this way, although I think it does up the intense and harrowing factor up by 100.

Don't forget to click through to my review of Simon Mayo's Blame here!

I received a copy of The Yellow Room from Hot Key Books in return for an honest review. All real opinions, promise!

Review! Mother Tongue by Julie Mayhew

I read The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew last year, the review of which you can read here, which was such a powerful and truly thought-provoking book. I was therefore awaiting her next book Mother Tongue with muuuch anticipation. 

Set in a small Russian town, the story follows Darya as she navigates the path to her future, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack at the local school, which leaves many young lives lost, including her little sister. Darya has spent the last six years essentially raising her sister Nika, with their mother bedridden since the birth, and so the loss of her life and her presence in Darya's life is monumental. The community is shaken and in recovery when foreign aid workers and journalists arrive to cover 'the story'. 

Darya's search for a way out of her hometown and the boring life that lies ahead of her, at first has you rooting for her to achieve her pencil-pot and secretary-friends dreams. But as she becomes more lost you begin to question her escape from grief and the importance of home. Darya is this stubborn, strong willed character, too big for her small town, but too naive for a big city like Moscow. 

Where The Big Lie had you calling for revolution, Mother Tongue leaves you at lot more introspective, asking questions of how to define identity, home, and grief. Mayhew is a brilliant author, and I can't wait to see what comes next.

I received a copy of Mother Tongue from Hot Key Books in return for an honest review. 

Top 6: Summer YA Reads

Helloo, I thought I'd share my recommendations for top summer YA reads today! It's definitely raining outside right now, but that doesn't mean you can't curl up with a summery book and pretend we're enjoying a proper sunny summer. Some of the following are sunny, fun beach reads, others sunny, deserty, or boaty with excellent heroines, and some pretty intense reads perfect for when you've got time on your holidays to read a whole book in a day. So, if you're wondering which YA reads should take up valuable flipflop room in your suitcase, look no further than:

1. Asking For It- Louise O'Neill

Right in at the deep end with Louise O'Neill's harrowing Asking For It, which tackles head on issues of rape culture, victim blaming, and slut shaming to name but a few. Asking For It is the story of Emma O'Donovan, a confident, pretty, popular girl in her last year of high school in a small Irish town. Emma is raped by several rising football stars at a drunken house party, remembers nothing, and learns of these events, along with the whole town, through explicit smartphone photos shared on social media. Emma's own refusal to believe the events occurred, and the town's fear for the boys 'ruined futures' chimes true with just about every campus rape victim blaming story you've heard of in recent years. Being inside Emma's narrative in the aftermath of this traumatising experience is harrowing, but also so compelling. Why am I recommending with super dark and intense book as a summer read? Well I reckon you'll want to read it in a oner, and then have several hours/days to reflect and recover, ideally with wine in easy reach and a swimming nearby. 

2. How Hard Can Love Be?- Holly Bourne

Lightening the mood a little is Holly Bourne's How Hard Can Love Be? the second book in the Spinster Club series! Am I Normal Yet? followed Evie, who was dealing with both sixth form college, making friends with Amber and Lottie, and keeping on top of her OCD. How Hard Can Love Be? is Amber's story of her summer holiday spent in California working at the summer camp where her mum now lives with her new husband. Hoping to rekindle a relationship with her recovering alcoholic mum, searching for the special bond that they maybe never even had, harbouring a crush for fellow camp councillor and former prom king Kyle, and keeping up feminist discussions with Evie and Lottie via Skype, Amber has a very full plate, and that's before you mention all the little American school children under her care. Holly Bourne is so good at making angst seem not angsty at all, making How Hard Can Love Be? a super engaging and fun summer read. 

3. The Rest of Us Just Live Here- Patrick Ness

Patrick Ness's The Rest of Us Just Live Here, is basically from the perspective everyone in town who wasn't in Buffy's scooby gang, or in Dumbledore's Army, or in Bella's coven. All the non-chosen ones, who have to deal with the mysterious mystical goings on, or the next end of the world, as bystanders. Mikey is a teenager, who just wants to go to prom with his friends and graduate before the high school is blown up again. Mikey's more ordinary issues, dealing with unrequited love, battling OCD, and navigating family life all play out against the backdrop of another epic mystery for the 'indie kids' to solve, with snippets of these absurd and melodramatic stories providing a juxtaposition to the main chapters. Perfect summer reading as it's in the run up to prom, with just the right amount of satire of hero stories and conviction in the heroism of everyday actions. Full of heart, humour, and warmth. 

4. Bullet Catcher- Joaquin Lowe

This one's on the summer list for its sandy desert setting. Bullet Catcher by Joaquin Lowe follows the story of Imma, who lives in a desert land populated by gunslingers and once great, but now died out bullet catchers, and who leaves the small town of Sand on the tail of a stranger she saw catch a bullet, in search for her possibly dead and definitely long lost brother, Nikko. Gungslingers and bullet catchers representing either good or evil, hero or monster, Imma has to work out which is which and therefore which path to take. I thought this was a great read, I really engaged with Imma and found the plot to be driven by plenty of action and momentum. A total page turner for poolside reading, and a potential new favourite gunslinging heroine. There may be another gunslinging heroine on this very list though so choose your fave!

5. The Girl From Everywhere- Heidi Heilig

Heidi Heilig's The Girl From Everywhere is a perfect Hawaii based, time travelling, summer read! Nix Song lives on a pirate ship with her father and their crew, spending their days using historical maps to time travel to places and times collecting fantastical creatures and mythical objects from all around the world. Nix is sixteen, and is particularly good at finding the perfect maps for time travelling, as each map can only be used once. The story begins in India in 1774, travelling to present day New York, and then to Honolulu 1883. Most of the story plays out in Hawaii, where Nix's late mother once lived, her father desperate to find a map to take him back to the time before her death. The story was exciting and compelling and I really like Nix and found her soul searching and life planning very relatable, even if her concerns were time travel based! Definitely recommended reading for anyone who loves Pippi Longstocking, Lyra of Northern Lights fame, and pirates!

6. Rebel of the Sands- Alwyn Hamilton

This beautiful shiny book will look great in the sunshine. Our second gunslinging heroine of the list: Set in a desert land with magical sand beasts and a Rebel Prince uprising against the king, Amani Al'Hiza is determined to leave her tiny dead-end town and head for the bright lights of the big city. Our heroine is particularly skilled with guns, and can definitely fend for herself, although it helps that she can pass for a boy. The world building is brilliant- I had amazing imagery in my head of this Middle Eastern meets cowboy Western land, especially appreciating the train scenes, there's just something about a desert train that I really love. Romance, adventure, mythology, and gun-slinging are all woven together beautifully, in what I was very pleased to learn is the first part of a trilogy. I reckon this one would be perfect for any summer train-based travel you may have planned!

Let me know your summer YA recs! 

Review! Riverkeep by Martin Stewart

I was super pleased to receive a review copy of debut author Martin Stewart's Riverkeep. The cover of the proof copy lists things like The Wizard of Oz, Ursula Le Guin, Patrick Ness, so obviously I was pretty excited to read it too. 

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. 

It took me stupidly long to get the Wizard of Oz connection, but essentially Wull picks up fellow travellers along the way, each on their own journeys, with their own problems to solve and wisdom to share. I got a really cold and dark and gloomy vibe from this book, with hints of scary unknown magic and terrifying creatures all alone the banks of this icy river. I admit for the first few chapters I was suddenly aware of and then annoyed about the lack of female characters, but this resolves itself pretty quickly and I really felt for Wull and his desperation to complete his journey and exasperation at his fellow travellers. 

I can really see a Silvain Chomet animation of this, as Belleville Rendezvous and The Illusionist have similar gloomy, grimy moments, and warm camaraderie moments too. I think the texture of Chomet's animations would really suit this story. 

Definitely worth a read if you like stories with some journeying in them! I'd love to see spin off with Mix as the main character so fingers crossed this world gets expanded.

I received a copy of Riverkeep from Penguin Books in return for an honest review. I really liked it I promise! 

Review!: Monsters by Emerald Fennel

Ohh this is a creepy old book! Emerald Fennel's murder mystery is set in a Cornish seaside town, where the bodies of young women washing up to shore shocks the locals and sparks a wide scale investigation. Delighted by the murders is a 12-year-old girl, our narrator, who is spending the summer in the town staying with her aunt and uncle who run a crumbling hotel. After the deaths of her parents in a freak accident several years previous, she is obsessed with all things dark and macabre. Befriending the mollycoddled son of a hotel guest, she and Miles Giffard spend the summer investigating the murders, and playing their own murder games with each other, which mostly involve attempting to drown each other. There are so many levels of unsettling creepiness in this novel. We never learn our narrators name, and there is a struggle to be on her side, as is it hard to tell whether our sympathies should lie with her, although this changes as the book progresses and the behaviour of those around her becomes all the more troubling. This is definitely not a book for children. Other dark undertones come in the form of the girl's uncle, who visits her room at night, where we presume abuse takes place, and in Miles' bizarre relationship with his mother, who among other things insists they bathe together. Despite all the dark, unsettling creepiness, there is also plenty of humour in the form of our narrator's darkly humorous observations of those around her. If you're into dark humour and murder mystery, this could be the book for you!

Six quotes to sum up the dark, creepy, humour of Monsters:

1. The book opens with:

"My parents got smushed to death in a boating accident when I was nine. Don't worry- I'm not that sad about it."

2. 

"I've been reading a book called The Murderers' Who's Who, which I took from Granny's bookcase before I left. It has a bloody dagger on the cover, and an alphabetical list of all the best murderers from the past. It even has some pictures in the middle, mostly of the victims, which you can look at to get a bit of an idea of what all the murderers have done. So I'll read that in bed, waiting for the sun to come up."

3.

 "'Peculiar' is one of my least favourite words. Everyone is always describing me as 'peculiar', especially grown ups. They called me peculiar when I gave the school gardener lemonade with wee in it, and they called me peculiar when I went to school wearing one of Granny's suits. Grown-ups never understand any of my jokes, but then kids don't really either."

4.

 "I read in one of my murder books that if you leave bodies long enough then they fill up with goo and go bang like balloons if you prick them. I could see the barnacled anchor near the dead lady's leg and was hoping that one of the ambulance men would tip her onto it by mistake and she'd explode all over the deck, but they managed to slither her onto the stretcher without so much as a pop."

5. 

"Then I got to watch his wispy moustache droop with embarrassment while I told him in detail about my parents drowning and getting minced up in the ship's propeller. I even teared up a bit for good measure, to really butter the bread nice and thick."

6. 

"There is a mangy cat that keeps showing up at the hotel. It's missing an eye, and it stinks. Aunt Maria has taken a shine to it and has insisted that she and Uncle Frederick take it in. She thinks the hotel could do with 'some character'. I personally think that a whiffy one-eyed cat isn't the kind of character a posh hotel should be striving for... Aunt Maria has named the cat Ruffles. Miles and I have named it Fucko."

I received a copy of Monsters from Hot Key Books, in return for an honest review. 

All views are entirely my own and not influenced by the freeness of the book!

Review!: One by Sarah Crossan

Hey look at me getting around to reviewing my September reads! It's really happening!

I bought One by Sarah Crossan after feeling blue for a couple days and decided to implement the treat yo self system. It's a lovely hardback book, in turquoise and pink and a nice matt dust cover. Written in free verse, the first free verse book I think I have read, One is the story of conjoined twins Grace and Tippi, as they leave homeschooling for the first time for their first experience of real high school. 

Five things I loved in One:

1- Free verse. Oh the free verse. Here is the first verse:

Sisters

Here

       We Are.

And we are living.

Isn't that amazing?

How we manage 

to be

at all.

2- The narrative is all from Grace's point of view. I was surprised at first that we don't get both twins' voices, but I came to really appreciate Grace's narrative. Because of course the sisters' are two separate people, individual people, with separate voices, just joined together. 

3- Dragon. Their little sister, who is 'completely normal'. Grace's concern for her little sister Nicola, nicknamed Dragon, and how her life is affected by having conjoined sisters is so... touching, I guess would be the word. 

"I do wonder if being our sister 

          sucks sometimes, 

if being our sister

makes her a freak

too. "

4- Jasmeen and Jon. Their new friends at their new school, who don't think Tippi and Grace are freaks, and who get it a little wrong, but learn from their mistakes. 

5- The title: One. And what that comes to mean.

Review!: Books I read in August: Did I Mention I Love You? The Manifesto on How to be Interesting, Church of Marvels, Am I Normal Yet? The Big Lie, Trouble is a Friend of Mine

August was a busy blogging month, but I still managed to do lots of reading too! I finished six excellent books. Here they are reviewed!:

Did I Mention I Love You?

Estelle Maskame's Did I Mention I Love You series is super famous on the internet as she posted her chapters on Wattpad as she wrote them. A teenager from Peterhead in Scotland, she started writing when she was just 13 and now her massive online following has earned her a publishing deal, which is just so impressive! I had to see what all the hype was about, and of course I was extra interested as she is Scottish! The book is the first in a trilogy and takes place in the states, where 16-year-old Eden is spending the summer away from her Portland, Oregan home in Santa Monica, California with her dad and his wife and step children. Eden very quickly becomes part of the gang of the eldest step brother, with a built in group of girls and guys to hang out with. The brother, Tyler, is a total asshole, so that shows some convincing writing skills, as the reader follows Eden's journey to figure out just why he is such an asshole and whether she can make him stop being such an asshole. There's romance, too many house parties to count, high school drama, a rubbish dad, and underlying body image issues. All written by an actual teenager, hats off to you Estelle!

The Manifesto on How to be Interesting

This was my first Holly Bourne book and I was so impressed with her writing. The main character Bree, is pretty much a loser at school, too keen in class, and actively trying not to fit in with greasy hair and poor fashion choices. She fancies her English teacher and hates her parents and is desperately trying, and failing, to become a published author. She decides, as an experiment to make herself more 'interesting' which I guess translates more as likeable. She get a makeover and whole new wardrobe with the help of her mum and insanely quickly becomes a member of the inner circle of popular kids. I found myself liking Bree much more post-makeover, I think because she was focussed and nice to people and showing off her cleverness with witty comebacks, instead of the snarky, abrasive person she had become pre-interesting. Drawing influence from classic teen dramas, Bree project to infiltrate the populars, which see writes all about on a blog she sets up, inevitably leads to some less than ideal consequences. The book deals with issues of self-harm, identity, teacher-student romance, and being true to yourself, once you've figured out who you are. I think the point is Bree wasn't really being her true self pre-interesting either and she learns that through a bunch of lessons along the way. 

Church of Marvels

I was expecting this book to be more circus-y than it ended up being, but I still really enjoyed reading it. Set in a very grubby and grimy turn-of-the-century New York City, the book follows intertwining stories from Coney Island, to Manhattan, to the lunatic asylum, as Odile Church sets out to look for her sister Belle, with whom she was raised at the Church of Marvels circus, who has disappeared into the city. The story is compelling, and I enjoyed the thrill of seeing where each thread would link up. The writing is very evocative, the asylum scenes were particularly gruesome. I had a real sense of the smokey, bustling, grimy city of Manhattan. There is great representation across the lead characters too, with representation of disability, mixed race, transgender,  and mental illness. I can really picture it as a film, all gloomy and gritty, but bright  and warm and human in places.

Am I Normal Yet?

My second Holly Bourne book ever, and my second this month! I thought this was a brilliant book. The main character Evie just wants to be 'normal' and starting out at her new sixth form college is a real challenge for her. She is recovering from a bad case of OCD and is almost off her meds, but of course college involves boys, parties, booze, new friends, and lots of entirely new situations. My understanding of OCD has been completely topped up by this book, as Evie honestly shares her experiences with the reader, although not with her new friends. She struggles with symptoms returning, ignores the signs, or acknowledges the signs and then ignores them as she tries desperately to 'normal'. Her two new best friends are great characters, and their Spinsters Club where they create space fro themselves to talk about feminism is brilliant. Desperately trying to get a boyfriend and needing to talk al their feeling out, but also wanting their conversations to pass the Bechdel test. All the boys are pretty terrible, but they are well fleshed out and well written terrible characters at least. I was thrilled to see this is book one of a trilogy, which will follow one of the girls as the lead in each book, I think Amber is next. If you do (or want to) understand teenage girls, mental health, feminism, and dating then this book is most certainly for you. 

The Big Lie

Set in contemporary Nazi England, Julie Mayhew offers a vision of alternate reality, where the Nazis won the war. Jess is the main character, and she is very well behaved, a talented figure skater, and a proud member of the Bund Deutscher Mädel. Jess slowly starts to see through her own naivety that there are those who are less submissive around her and that there are consequences for those who speak out against the regime. She deals with sexuality, sexism, censorship, authority, punishment, in this strange version of reality where the Holocaust is a rumour, sterilisation is a punishment for crime, and death by hanging in public from a lamppost is a valid form of execution. Her next-door neighbour Clem and her family are outspoken and radical, getting caught with CD players and computers that can access the internet (technology seems stuck in the 1940s for everyone else). It is Clem who gives Julie clues to their oppression and helps open her eyes to the existence of the rest of the world.  Reading Julie Mayhew's notes at the end on her research process where really fascinating, learning how she drew on specific stories and events to create certain characters and scenes. It's a really great book. Read it!

Trouble is a Friend of Mine

Set in upstate New York, this story follow Zoe, who has recently moved from Brooklyn with her newly divorced Mum, and is attending a school she is hoping only to attend for a little while before she gets into a prestigious Princeton feeder school. She is befriended by an eccentric guy called Philip Digby, who gets her into various dangerous and bizarre situations as he attempts to solve the case of a missing, potentially kidnapped, teenage girl. His own infant sister had been kidnapped years ago, and so with the cases potentially linked, he is determined to find out the truth. Having been obsessed with the Serial podcast at the time of reading this, I was very much into the crime solving elements of the story. There is a touch of romance, and a group prom date situation, but mostly the book is about new friendships, terrible parents, a bunch of misfits, and a whole lot of creepy crimes exposed. 

A couple of these books pop up in other blog posts of mine, including Am I Normal Yet? and The Big Lie in Top 5 Feminist YA and The Manifesto on How to be Interesting in Top 6 High School YA. Go have a read please! 

I received a couple of these books for review. All views are entirely my own and not influenced by the freeness of the book!

Top 5 (6) Books: High School Young Adult Fiction

So, obviously a lot of YA contemporary novels have High School as their main setting, but there are plenty that take place over the summer holidays, or at parties, or at college, or on a road trip. High School is a strange and unique place. It needs to navigated. You need to survive it. You're meant to figure out what you want to do and who you want to be. While you're in it, it feels like the most important time in your life, it feels like your whole world. I've picked 6 of what I think are the best High School based YA novels. They each get to the essence of the High School experience for each of their characters. It would've probably been good if I had actually read them when I was in High School (I mostly read Harry Potter and Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, which are both set mostly in High Schools so I guess I got some of the experience). Here they are:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower- Stephen Chbosky

Possibly the ultimate High School misfits story. Charlie is dealing with a whole lot of repressed-childhood-memory issues, and on top of that has to deal with being a shy, intelligent, wallflower of a teenage boy. The friends he makes (fellow wallflowers), and the experiences they give him (parties, drugs, mix tapes, girlfriends, The Rocky Horror Picture Show) paint the ultimate picture of being carefree and non-conforming. Not caring about popularity in High School must be the best super power there is.

The Manifesto on How to be Interesting- Holly Bourne

Bree starts out the story as very unpopular at her High School. She doesn't care about popularity, or being pretty, or make up, or getting invites to parties. She in cleverer than everyone she knows and is trying to become a published author. When she begins her project on becoming more 'interesting', she ends up playing the system and manipulating the social hierarchy to end up on top. With a new hair cut, stylish clothes, sought after make up brands, and no more sticking her hand up in class, Bree very quickly becomes part of the 'perfects' clique. Bringing the system down from within, and herself with it, there is a definite 'being yourself is important' message. Not caring about popularity is great, but you need to care about yourself. 

Eleanor & Park- Rainbow Rowell

Another misfits novel, Eleanor and Park are both reasonably low in the social standings of their High School, particularly Eleanor, whose family is pretty poor and dysfunctional, so it's especially hard for her to be wearing the right clothes and rocking the right haircut. This is a love story of school-bus-headphone-sharing, and me-and-you-against-the-world first love. Finding refuge from life and school with each other, they are pretty determined to last forever, though they know the universe the probably against them. Eleanor & Park captures the essence of that first High School love. 

Only We Know- Simon Packham

Yet another misfit, Lauren is starting a new High School and trying to get away from the secrets of her past. Desperately hiding her secrets from her new friends, she gets involved in the school fashion show, goes to parties, goes on a date. With the added mystery and who-dun-it of someone from her past threatening to let her secrets out, Lauren attempts to navigate the already difficult waters of being a new student at a High School. The big twisteroo really makes this novel, and once we realise what Lauren has been dealing with, her High School journey becomes all the more impressive. In the end being herself does pay off, with her new classmates fully supporting her. 

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks- E. Lockhart

Frankie attends an extremely prestigious boarding school somewhere New England (I think). What makes this story unique, is that while a large portion of it centres on Frankie's rise to popularity through dating a popular guy, and her awareness of the fragility of her position at their table in the cafeteria, it mostly focusses on Frankie infiltrating an elite secret society and attempting to bring down the old-boys-network from within. Like Charlie in Perks, and Bree in Manifesto, she is way cleverer than most of the people she hangs out with, and her drive to be known and respected is about much more than popularity and security. It seems Frankie will continue being herself, and continue attempting to bring down old-boys-networks and patriarchy by any means at her disposal.

Before I Fall- Lauren Oliver

This time from the point of view of a popular High School senior, Sam, the entire book is set on one day, repeated seven times. It's February 12th, 'Cupid Day', which involves valentines and skimpy dressing for school, and a big party that night, at the end of which Sam dies in a car crash. As she lives the day over and over, Sam gets to learn more about her position in the social hierarchy of the school, and about fellow students, the lives of which she had previously deemed unimportant. She sees how her life has affected others, and how the simplest actions can change a whole day. Over the relived days Sam slowly realises, along with the reader, what she has to do to finally come to rest. While being true to yourself and living in the moment is important, being aware of your own impact on those around is equally valuable. 

Be true to yourself! Don't care about popularity! Care about yourself! Care about your friends! Be aware of your actions and their impact on other people! Fall in love, why not! Bring down the patriarchy! 

Top 5 Books: Dystopian Young Adult Fiction

Ooh I do love me a dystopian future. The population (usually of an American city) is controlled by omnipotent oppressive government, ruling the people with some kind of singular Truth (the concept of the book, and usually not in fact true), until one plucky heroine find herself faced with the uncomfortable fact that she and her fellow citizens have been deceived/controlled/manipulated. There might be some form of resistance community to connect on the 'outside', she might be just a pawn, she'll probably fall in love. There'll be future technology, descriptions of which you have to get your head around, future rituals and traditions, future fashions and vehicles. There's usually freedom at the end, following a battle of epic proportions, but not always. Sometimes there's a happily-ever-after epilogue, sometimes there is just hope...

This here, my friends, is my Top 5 of Dystopian Fiction. This list will probably change over time as there are many I am sure I have yet to read, so maybe we'll need a part 2, but for now here it is. In no particular order these are my favourite works of dystopian fiction, both series and standalones. Enjoy!

1. The Hunger Games

So, duh, The Hunger Games. But I had to, it'd be a lie if I didn't include it. Suzanne Collins' vision of war combined with reality TV created the perfect mix for a dystopian epic. Their popularity is not unfounded. Katniss is a wonderful reluctant hero. Her bravery and her trauma make her a flawed and powerful character. The downtrodden masses are led to revolt, with Katniss as their icon of revolution. The secret resistance in District 13 is there to build strength and fight the powers that be. There's war, suffering, a love triangle. And an epilogue. An "I chose Peeta and we had babies" epilogue. I love you Katniss, I'm sorry Peeta made you have babies. (What do we think is happening in the rest of the world in the age of Panem and Capitol rule? Are they just steering clear? Quite possibly.)

2. Delirium

Another dystopian trilogy, Lauren Oliver's Delirium is set in a future America where love has been deemed a disease, and a cure has been found. A procedure is performed at the age of 18 which seems to be some kind of brain surgery, to cure people of love. The book begins with protagonist Lena counting down the ninety-five days until her cure. Of course a lot of things change in those ninety-five days. Delirium has it all; the oppressive leaders who enforce their power using random raids and armed peace keepers; the secret resistance; the falling in love; and long lost parents! I loved this trilogy, and I know some people weren't so impressed with its finale, but I found it very staisfying. (Outlook on rest of the world is unclear, but I think there is mention of running to Canada.)

3. Vivian Versus the Apocalypse

I have reviewed this book recently, and I loved it. This time set in a not so futuristic America where a new church, The Church of America, has convinced a lot of the population that the end of the world is coming and those faithful to the church will be raptured on a set date. Vivian Apple's parents are believers and when they disppear on the night of the rapture, Viv and her non-beleiver friend Harp are left parentless and in search of answers. The girls set off on a roadtrip for answers and along side figuring out the mysterious workings of the Church, it seems real signs of the end of the world are happening across the earth, with natural disasters, plane crashes, and wars all breaking out. There are long lost parents, conspiracies, falling in love, and secret resistance organisations. Viv and Harp are two great characters, whose development and relationship through the two books is perfectly played out. (Rest of the world is dealing with all the strange natural disasters and it seems a lot of rioting. The Church of America is mentioned at attempting to gain followers in the UK.)

2. Only Ever Yours

This amazing dystopia plays a feminist critique of our own society. Set in a futurewhere female babies are no longer being born, girls, called 'eves', are bred artificially to be perfect specimens and raised in a school, where they compete to be ranked top in their beauty. They watch reality TV and spread gossip through their fancy future smart phones. Their social media pages are all visual, with photos or moving image, as the eves are not taught to read. Enough eves are bred in each year to exceed the number of male babies born. These eves will then become either wives, and breed their sons, or concubines, to be used for sex, or - the nun like women who raise and teach the eves. Unlike other dystopias, there is less hope of escape and of a life outside the confines of their society. As a reader you long for the secret resistance, but there are no long lost parents, and falling in love is difficult when boys have been raised to see the eves are objects for them to eventually own and use. (There are hints that across the world, there are various different versions of the same system playing out, but we don't hear too much about the outside world.)

1. Exodus
Sea levels have risen, drowning cities, leaving almost no land. The island of Wing has been slowly disappearing into the sea, leaving its community, and Mara, out heroine, looking for a new place to live. The story takes us to New Mungo, a city built on stilts high above what used to be Glasgow. There's an ambitious female lead, an escape mission and a super modern city in the sky. I've only read the first in the trilogy but it's a great dystopian setting with mukry depths of slave labour and refugee camps. (Rest of the world has followed suit and the high rising cities across the world are linked by a cyber space Internet of trading. The hope of land in the north drives the plot too.)