Monday 25 July 2016

BookTubeAThon 2016 Wrap Up

I did it! This year was my second time participating in the BookTubeAThon, and after what felt like a bit of a disastrous result at the time last year (1,393 pages out of an aspirational 2,410, and four books read) I am so proud of what I got through in 2016. Not only did I complete all of the challenges and read seven whole books, I also really enjoyed what I read and took part in some of the special events and challenges over on social media. (Okay, only a few twitter sprints and an instagram post, but it was more than I did last year.)
On top of my personal participation, I have to say thank you to Ariel and everyone involved in running the BookTubeAThon this year. Though I've only taken part twice, I've spectated pretty much since the beginning, and this year there was so much to do all over the internet: on top of the daily videos and challenges on the YouTube channel, we had Instagram challenges, genuine author pep talks and a constant stream of activity on Twitter. The community that's been built up is so nice to see, and I'm sure that next year will be even better.
If you have some free time, have a scroll through some of the challenges and people's entries from earlier in the week:
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/BookTubeAThon
Twiter - https://twitter.com/BookTubeAThon
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/booktubeathon

Book Read in the BookTubeAThon

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The Dreamers, Gilbert Adair (208 pages)
This Savage Song, V.E. Schwab (407 pages)
Thin Air, Michelle Paver (288 pages)
When Marnie Was There, Joan G. Robinson (288 pages)
Saga: Volume 2, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (168 pages)
Saga: Volume 3, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (144 pages)
Daphnis and Chloe, Longus (144 pages)

Of course, what I'd planned to read for this week changed quite a bit. I started reasonably on track, but gradually became aware that reading This Savage Song and its 407 pages was pushing me behind a little (completely worth it though). to compensate I replaced two of the books with some graphic novels and shuffled around the challenges a little. I was close to just ignoring the challenges at one point, realising that Thin Air, the book I had originally planned to read after sunset, was going to take longer than I thought, and so I needed to use that as my extra book on top of the specific challenges since it didn't fit into anything else. But I managed to sort it out: When Marnie Was There could be moved to the book with yellow on the cover, I could read Saga at night, and then bring in a whole Daphnis and Chloe for the book older than me.
Out of the books I read, This Savage Song and the Saga volumes were by far the best: I could barely put any of these down, and even between other errands I had to run throughout the week I kept coming back to them when I had free time. But, having said that, there weren't any books I read that I disliked, just perhaps some slight disappointments.
Reviews for all the novels I read during the BookTubeAThon will be up soon.

Challenge Overview
Read a book with yellow on the cover - COMPLETED with When Marnie Was There
Read a book only after sunset - COMPLETED with Saga: Volume 2
Read a book you discovered through booktube - COMPLETED with Saga: Volume 3
Read a book by one of your favourite authors - COMPLETED with This Savage Song
Read a book older than you - COMPLETED with Daphnis and Chloe
Read and watch a book-to-movie adaptation - COMPLETED with The Dreamers
Read seven books - COMPLETED with Thin Air

Day 1: Monday 18th of July
Books and Pages Read:
The Dreamers, Gilbert Adair (208 pages) [finished!]
This Savage Song, V. E. Schwab (48 pages)
Pages Read Today: 256 pages
Total Pages Read: 256 pages

Day 2: Tuesday 19th of July
Books and Pages Read:
This Savage Song, V.E. Schwab (68 pages)
Thin Air, Michelle Paver (37 pages)
Pages Read Today: 105 pages
Total Pages Read: 361 pages

Day 3: Wednesday 20th of July
Books and Pages Read:
This Savage Song, V.E. Schwab (260 pages)
Pages Read Today: 260 pages
Total Pages Read: 621 pages

Day 4: Thursday 21st of July
Books and Pages Read:
This Savage Song, V.E. Schwab (31 pages) [finished!]
When Marnie Was There, Joan G. Robinson (78 pages)
Pages Read Today: 109 pages
Total Pages Read: 730 pages

Day 5: Friday 22nd of July
Books and Pages Read:
Thin Air, Michelle Paver (159 pages)
Saga: Volume 2, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (86 pages)
Pages Read Today: 245 pages
Total Pages Read: 975 pages

Day 6: Saturday 23rd of July
Books and Pages Read:
Thin Air, Michelle Paver (92 pages) [finished!]
When Marnie Was There, Joan G. Robinson (210 pages) [finished!]
Saga: Volume 2, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (82 pages) [finished!]
Pages Read Today: 384 pages
Total Pages Read: 1,359 pages

Day 7: Sunday 24th of July
Books and Pages Read:
Saga: Volume 3, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (144 pages) [finished!]
Daphnis and Chloe, Longus (144 pages) [finished!]
Pages Read Today: 288 pages
Total Pages Read: 1,647 pages

I'm very happy with what I read this week: the equivalent of about four or five novels read in one week, and generally I enjoyed everything I read. It was nice to see so many people getting involved across social media as well, and I hope everyone else was just as successful. Thanks for visiting, and happy BookTubeAThon.

Image Sources - 
The Dreamers - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/624641.The_Dreamers
This Savage Song - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28696452-this-savage-song
Thin Air - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28335600-thin-air
When Marnie Was There - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23019010-when-marnie-was-there
Saga: Volume 2 - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17131869-saga-volume-2
Saga: Volume 3 - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19358975-saga-volume-3
Daphnis and Chloe - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1243969.Daphnis_and_Chloe

Saturday 23 July 2016

When Marnie Was There

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Book Title: When Marnie Was There
Author: Joan G. Robinson
Date Started: June 21st 2016
Date Completed: July 23rd 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

Though I don't usually pick my books for the season, I can see When Marnie Was There being the perfect relaxed summer read for younger audiences: a gentle, heartfelt story with little flairs of adventure. If I was younger I think I would've loved his book, but right now it was a little too gentle for my tastes.

The main thing that stuck out for me in this book was the representation of depression at a time when it wasn't acceptable to experience it. The book was published in the 60s and while there was a vague awareness of what mental health was, it wasn't really okay to exhibit the symptoms or consequences. Yet Robinson shows Anna's depression and the reactions other people have to it with surprising accuracy, and through a child narrator without being patronising. I think the simplicity with which the author talks about Anna's feelings and behaviour without needing to explain at great lengths what's happening is a big part of its effect - depression isn't a word mentioned at any point, understandably, but it's clear that this is what Anna is experiencing. Furthermore, for a younger audience I think it does a really good job of just showing these kinds of emotions, which in itself is a rare thing.

I keep saying it, but I would've loved this book as a kid, because it ties in all my favourite parts of good old fashioned adventure (the impromptu meetings, secret little alcoves in mysterious buildings, peculiar children that seem to appear from nowhere), with some magical elements as well. You can discuss whether the main enigma of the story is magical realism, hallucinations or pure fantasy until the cows come home, but for me I didn't even mind - I just loved reading about it anyway. Of course, these days it did get to me a little bit that the resolutions and explanations for these little mysteries were honestly a bit of a mess by the end, but had I read this a few years ago I wouldn't have been able to put it down. In fact this book just reminds me of my childhood, and while that's great for nostalgia, it wasn't quite what I was looking for in a story.

Apart from Anna and her mental health, I do have to say the rest of the characters are generally unremarkable, but they fit nicely into that old fashioned style of characters that each have their own little adventurous twist; I kept being reminded of The Famous Five, or Swallows and Amazons. Overall it does seem like everyone else is around to take Anna through her transformation, which is fine but there was a part of me that wanted a little more to distinguish between each character.

When Marnie Was There is slow and sweet. For me personally it was a little too slow and sweet - especially to read in between my usual tastes - but it would be a gentle summer pick for readers a little younger than me.

I would have loved When Marnie Was There when I was younger, and even now it was a nice summer read, but I didn't come out of it with anything anymore. However, for younger readers I think this book would very accessible and engaging - I honestly wish I'd had it when I had a summer holiday in Norfolk.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23019010-when-marnie-was-there

Thin Air

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Book Title: Thin Air
Author: Michelle Paver
Date Started: June 20th 2016
Date Completed: July 23rd 2016
Genres: Historical, Horror
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I'm not one for straight-forward horror, but psychological creepy stuff is another matter. In the end Thin Air ticked the box for the spooky idea, but it wasn't used to it's potential in the end. I almost feel like this book will be adored by a select few people, but isn't overly enjoyable for anyone outside of that niche audience.

In a ghost story, when the simple sentences with facts are scarier than the haunting scenes there's a bit of a problem. The hair's on the back of my neck stood up when at the start we're told only four of the five victims of the 1907 expedition up Kangchenjunga were laid to rest, but when the ghostly figure was spotted in that moment of shock across the glacier I felt nothing. One of the reasons I prefer psychological horror instead of the more traditional violence and gore-based genres is that it relies a lot more on atmosphere than the shock of something happening: it's often more what you don't see, than what you do. Where Thin Air really fell down for me was when there wasn't enough of that tense atmosphere built up for me to be scared with Stephen when he jumped at nothing - it just came across as Stephen jumping at nothing.

If you're interested in mountain climbing, great! Otherwise you're probably going to get pretty bored with the repetitive descriptions of every glacier the group pass (they're on a mountain, there's quite a few). I knew going in that this was a book about mountain climbing, but what caught my eye was the ghost story bit, so honestly I was a little more invested in the development in that part of the story and that's where things started to fall a little flat. I still think Paver's story idea has some good potential, and right at the beginning being told that there was one unburied body somewhere up on that mountain freaked me out a bit - but that was the last time I really felt tense. A little more exploration of why there was something supernatural happening, or even some more drama once we'd realised what was happening would have done so much for this book. Instead we just skim the surface of all these potential storylines or exposition opportunities, and I wanted more to the point where I kept getting pulled out of the story. The climax was very much the same: it almost felt like an anticlimax and there was something that still had to be finished. It happened so fast and there was no real explanation or resolution and I can't even see that much development in the protagonist over the time of the story.

I wasn't particularly attached to any characters, in fact I wasn't a huge fan of any of them for the most part. The competitive brotherly relationship between Stephen and Kits was probably the most engaging aspect of any character, but I still wouldn't be able to list the names of the five main climbers and tell them apart if you asked me. Part of this was to do with genuine parts of their characters - the casual racism, while I understand was for characterisation to an extent, definitely put me off from getting attached to anyone - but I also struggled to find anything to latch onto for each character.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced a huge part of why I didn't enjoy this book was because I got very bored about hearing all the details of mountaineering that saturate the text so heavily - so of course the book felt very slow paced for me. I spent the 50% almost begging for something to actually happen, so Stephen would stop talking about this glacier, and that ledge, and this person's medical condition for long enough to engage me in the spooky happenings. In hindsight, I may have misjudged this book in being a psychological thriller - it doesn't claim to be, I'll admit, but the advertised 'ghost story' made me expect a little more of a creepy atmosphere alongside the (admittedly impressively) detailed explanations of mountain climbing.

Honestly, Thin Air wasn't terrible, it just fell flat in a lot of places for me. If you're a fan of the outdoors or specifically mountain climbing, you might be able to get more engaged with the characters and story than I was, and therefore might feel the ghostly spookiness more, but personally I was quite far removed because I found little that interested me in this book.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28335600-thin-air

Thursday 21 July 2016

This Savage Song

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Book Title: This Savage Song
Author: V.E. Schwab
Series: Monsters of Verity #1
Date Started: June 19th 2016
Date Completed: July 21st 2016
Genres: Dystopian, Thriller, Fantasy
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star
Final Rating: Five stars
Review:

I haven't related to a book on a personal level like I did with This Savage Song for a long time. Don't get me wrong, this novel is fantastic regardless, but as an individual who follows Victoria's work closely and has personal mental health conditions this book struck me very hard. And I think it's a very good way to explore mental health without people necessarily knowing it.

This Savage Song, whether it was deliberate or subconscious, has quite frankly staggering parallels to mental health, in both the monsters themselves and the experiences of the characters. Not only am I so happy to see this sort of thing being explored in such a creative way, but I'm also hopeful for what this meant for the author, as well as myself. Victoria is someone who I greatly look up to for countless reasons, but one of which being in how she struggles with some of the things paralleled in her novel: when reading I saw echoes of depression, anxiety, panic attacks. Maybe, once I'd noticed the first few, my own mind starting picking them out for me, but even so seeing those elements there was somehow a comfort - the experiences and feelings being portrayed aren't fun, but it helped me, honestly. However, past the impact this has on me personally, I think it's also a really interesting exploration of mental health in a creative and innovative way - I haven't really seen anyone else talk about this book in terms of mental health, and perhaps I am drawing conclusions from poetic license, but I'd be interested to see what other people thought on its parallels.

A genre that I really don't see that much in the literature I read, but really really love, is old fashioned gangster style crime. Admittedly, This Savage Song isn't really a gangster book, but you gotta love a good old gangster setting, even if it does have a little dystopian twist. And no, it isn't even the main sort of landscape we're in for a lot of the story, but it really does give this book that extra edge. I'm all for corrupt governments in dystopians, but it's rare that I feel the threat these examples of authority pose - but I felt it in Verity. A lot of that's to do with the gradual but clear world building intertwined as part of the story as well as exposition, and part of that's just Victoria Schwab being her usual talented self.
There are some really nice moments in this book that made me gasp; in fact there were points when I found myself genuinely grinning, laughing or staring wide eyed at the page. Some parts might have felt a little more predictable than what I'm used to from Victoria, but there were definitely parts I didn't see coming as well. Overall it's definitely a character story: you invest in the people and they carry things through - if I were to brutally scrutinise it, there was maybe a slight lack of Schwab's usual flair. But even so, I adored every second of this book, and the storyline and climax hold up well for any angle.

I love Schwab's male/female relationships that don't need romance to be intimate. There might always be a hint of something in the future, but in all her books I've found very close friendships and familial relationships that don't require a directly romantic edge to fuel them. First of all, it's a breath of fresh air from what we're constantly being bombarded with in most other examples - but it also does a brilliant job of showing how great it is to have characters stand on their own as powerful individuals. They feel more real, more investable, and like there's further they can go because they haven't had their fate decided for them just yet.
Kate kicked ass. It was pretty cool. She's definitely a flawed and unfriendly hero at times, but again, it's so nice to have a complex protagonist making the wrong decisions and actually paying the consequences. And Kate most certainly pays the consequences.
And in many ways August seems like her polar opposite: he wants to avoid making the wrong decisions to the point where he's scared to do a lot of things at all. Again, a very complex protagonist, but in very different ways. I think it takes a very talented author to be able to write such complicated and conflicting characters, and have their problems and their salvations seem similar to a reader. By the end I just wanted to give him hug, honestly.

Just personally, I'm not a huge fan of school settings, so the first half of this book felt a little bit slow for me at times. There were definitely elements I enjoyed, but it was noticeably slower than what I was used to from Schwab - again, I don't think this was the book, just my personal preference. However, once we got to the middle I could barely put it down. I had to keep reading, I had to know what happened, but at the same time I really didn't want it to be over.

This Savage Song isn't Victoria's most sophisticated book in terms of story line, but her connections (whether deliberate or otherwise) to mental health had a real significance to me, and regardless this book is packed full of action, dystopian adventure thrills. While working as its own story very well, I'm sure it'll expand in the next books, and I'm sure two certain people will find their paths cross again, as always seems to be the case with Victoria's stories.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28696452-this-savage-song

Monday 18 July 2016

The Dreamers

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Book Title: The Dreamers
Author: Gilbert Adair
Date Started: June 18th 2016
Date Completed: July 18th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

The Dreamers is a lovely book - lovely, but strange. It belongs to that quirky, quiet, twisted and inventive genre that I love so much, sharing tips with the likes of The Secret History, Cassandra and The History Boys. The thing that really made it stand out for me was the love of film: these characters hold their cinémathèque at the centre of their lives and beliefs, and as a filmmaker it's a wonderful thing to read about.

There's no denying The Dreamers is a very poetic story, written in a very poetic way. The references to film culture sprinkled around was wonderful (something that was perfectly captured in the film version I might add), but sometimes I found myself detached because of the writing style. It's always hard in a poetic and at times dark story like this one to get that full immersion where the reader feels part of the story, but it almost felt like Adair wasn't even trying to get that. And maybe he wasn't, maybe that wasn't the kind of experience he wanted his readers to have, but I kept getting drawn out of the story each time it felt like the characters had a secret that I was being left out of. Again, this is part of the story towards the beginning, but I founded myself more and more distant from what was happening as the poetic style became more and more vivid, but left me behind a little.

I've seen people describe this book as 'cinema, sex and politics', and perhaps with the inclusion of romance, I'd agree. But that extra little thing is very important for me: The Dreamers is about a romance between three friends, and a romance between cinema and it's audience, between politics and the people; a romance that almost calls into question what romance is, and what justifies it. In terms of storyline, not a lot happens in this book, but metaphorically it goes through a huge transformation. Honestly, there were times when I wasn't engaged with whatever messages Adair was trying to teach me - the poetic style not quite working with me - and I was kind of waiting for something to happen. But again, at other times I was content reading about the twins and Matthew lazing about discussing classic film or their society. Yes, it sounds pretentious, and it definitely is at points, but (again, as a filmmaker) sometimes there were times when I felt myself relaxing into those circular conversations and enjoying them.
In terms of how the book comes together at the end, I think it's one of the neatest parts of the book. I read this as part of the BookTubeAThon, with the challenge to watch the film adaptation as well, and having watched the film I appreciate the book a little more. There are a few little changes between versions, and some things work better here, and some better there, but overall I think Bertolucci did a very good job of directing and seeing things happen in a physical space made their meaning clearer and more enjoyable. Having said that, the climax of the book was much more effective and ran in tune with what the overall feel of the story than the film - and the two differ quite a lot on this front - so I'm glad I read it before I watched it.

While I like the protagonists of The Dreamers, they were too shrouded in a mysterious fog to see them very well. Again, the film helped with this (the casting was perfect), but part of the reason I didn't fall in love with this book was that the characters felt like characters - not real people. Not necessarily because they weren't realistic, but because there was a divide between reader and fiction, like watching this all happen on a stage as opposed to all around you. In a way, this almost added to the narrative: you certainly felt like Matthew, included but knowing you were in the dark about some aspects of these people. But by the time we reached the end I wanted to have that personal connection to them, but I didn't.

The Dreamers felt very slow because it's a book in which there aren't very many key events, but a lot of prose in between. Because of this it feels a little slow at times, and I definitely noticed actual scenes seeming to fly by when I was reading them. However, the short length of the book worths in its favour here; it might feel a little slow but before you know it the narration has actually given you quite a bit of development and you're powering through it. I would say that the poetic style is one of the things that slows the pace down and is sometimes a little tedious, but The Dreamers is still a book you can immerse yourself in pretty easily.

This book was not what I was expecting, but it was still good. While definitely not being for younger readers (sex everywhere), it does capture the feeling of youth pretty well (both the good and the bad). Overall, I feel like it works well not knowing much about the story going in it, but if you like films and you like borderline pretentious but enjoyable dialogue, this might be one to pick up.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/624641.The_Dreamers

Sunday 17 July 2016

BookTubeAThon 2016

Last year was my first time taking part in the BookTubeAThon, with a grand total 1393 pages read of out of 2410 I had aimed for. Not the best result, but also not a terrible one - but this year I want to do better. I think it's going to be a more busy week than last year as well, but I'm excited about the books I've got to read and I'm really happy with how much the BookTubeAThon has been able to expand this year with all its extra sponsors and hosts.
(If you want to see my participation last year here are my TBR and Wrap Up blog posts.)

What is the BookTubeAThon?
The BookTubeAThon is an annual readathon founded by book tube Ariel Bissett, where a collection of hosts promote challenges and giveaways to try and encourage as much reading as possible in a single week. This year the BookTubeAThon is taking place between the 18th of July (tomorrow) to the 24th, starting at midnight wherever in the world you are. Each day a video challenge is posted on the official YouTube channel by a different host involving a bookish competition for everyone at home - this year there are also going to be other giveaways and competition posted on Instagram. It's a great way to get involved with the BookTube community - whether you're a creator or simply a reader - and get loads of reading done. For more information, head over to the BookTubeAThon channel or Twitter page.

BookTubeAThon TBR
This year I'm being ambitious again: seven books for the seven challenges, and the shorted being 208 pages long. I'm never going to be able to get through all of these, but I might as well set the bar high and read books that I'm going to enjoy.
The seven challenges for 2016 are:
1) Read a book with yellow on the cover.
2) Read a book only after sunset.
3) Read a book you discovered through booktube.
4) Read a book by one of your favourite authors.
5) Read a book older than you.
6) Read and watch a book-to-movie adaptation.
7) Read seven books.

17878533 28335600 17378527
28696452 23019010 624641 499118

The Night is for Hunting, John Marsden
252 pages (read a book with yellow on the cover)
Thin Air, Michelle Paver
288 pages (read a book only after sunset)
The Raven King, Maggie Stiefvater
439 pages (read a book you discovered through booktube)
This Savage Song, Victoria Schwab
407 pages (read a book by one of your favourite authors)
When Marnie Was There, Joan G. Robinson
288 pages (read a book that's older than you)
The Dreamers, Gilbert Adair
208 pages (read and watch a book-to-movie adaptation)
The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor
358 pages (read seven books)
Total Pages: 2240

Last year was my first time participating in the BookTubeAThon, but I aimed for about the same number of pages as I've got this year and only read about three books in the end. But these are some books I'm really excited to get reading - and I know from experience I can get through Victoria Schwab's book quickly so maybe it's not impossible. We'll have to see in a week. Good luck if you're taking part and happy BookTubeAThon!

Image Sources - 
The Dreamers - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/624641.The_Dreamers?from_search=true
Thin Air - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28335600-thin-air?ac=1&from_search=true
The Raven King - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17378527-the-raven-king?ac=1&from_search=true
This Savage Song - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28696452-this-savage-song
When Marnie Was There - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23019010-when-marnie-was-there
The Looking Glass Wars - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/499118.The_Looking_Glass_Wars
The Night is for Hunting - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17878533-the-night-is-for-hunting

Sunday 10 July 2016

The Bone Sparrow

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Book Title: The Bone Sparrow
Author: Zana Fraillon
Date Started: June 29th 2016
Date Completed: July 10th 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I don't think I've ever actually read a book about refugees. Admittedly contemporary and war-related historical novels aren't really my thing, but even so when I noticed The Bone Sparrow it piqued my interest. I knew nothing about refugee detention center or even the Rohingya people when I started reading, and by the end I'm disgusted that the events in this book based on real life are never reported to us - as Fraillon makes clear in her afterword was the point.

The Bone Sparrow has a tone to it throughout, regardless of severity of events it portrays. Weaved in amongst the contemporary genre are these little nods to fairytales and storytelling in its purest form: through the eyes of a child. Subhi himself is a brilliant narrator who is very well written for his age and perspective. The inclusions of things like his Night Sea, the Shakespeare duck (who is the best character) and the stories he reads from Jimmie's book add that little bit of magical realism that really picks up everything that's happening and engages the reader.
Having said that I would really have liked a bit more description on things like setting. If I hadn't read around the book a little I would have missed that the book is set in Australia, and I think that actually makes quite a difference to the story in terms of setting (especially when I was picturing things like Subhi's Night Sea which sometimes floods the tents - my admittedly stereotyped instinct goes towards a European setting which is quite a different picture). I also think this would have made a little bit more of a contrast between Subhi and Jimmie's lives: one comes from a refugee detention center and the other from (I think) a reasonably wealthy family. Just a little more detail into those visual contrasts would have been nice.

My favourite part of The Bone Sparrow was the little stories shared between characters and weaved into the whole nature of the book. The idea of stories as an escape was lovely, but it also elevated the atmosphere of the detention center to make it feel a lot more dark at times, and filled with community at others. From Subhi's perspective I think this really makes the story what it is and that little bit more engaging for a reader.
Without knowing much about the subject, I feel like we're given a good representation of what these refugee detention centers are like, but I have to say while I support all the messages we're given, it didn't hit me as a story itself. This is in part because of the inclusion of Jimmie and her personal struggles as an outsider of the detention center. While her story had merit, it felt like a bit of a distraction: she had her difficult relationships with her dad and brother, but none really fit into parallels or some sort of mutual growth between the two children to help solve both their problems. They were just two kids talking to each other, and while that was nice to read about, it took away from the focus of the book and was quite frustrating to read when there were frankly more important parts of the narrative to get to.

When it comes to characters the relationships were the best thing to come across. I have to say past Subhi and Jimmie we don't really get such development in anyone else past their originally solid characters. But the family and friend relationships come across really well: I didn't need convincing that Subhi loved his mother, and his older sister Queeny loved him despite her angry responses pretty much any time he opened his mouth.
Subhi was a really nice protagonist, both as a person and a character in the plot. Something I often get annoyed with when younger characters are given main role is they're often not written as their age: you have 9 year olds that understand the world like 18 year olds, but talk like a 5 year old. Even though I don't think it mentions what age he is, you get a pretty solid idea that Subhi is a young kid that doesn't really understand anything that's happening to him, but is still intuitive and clever enough to understand how it's affecting the people around him. Fraillon really utilises the stories he tells to Jimmie and the others here, and seeing that idea of stories as an escape was a really lovely aspect to the book as a whole.

The pacing ends up feeling a bit repetitive switching between Subhi's life in the day and his meetings with Jimmie at night, but things do slowly progress and it's a nice, gentle way to look at these issues through the eyes of a child. While we're of course building up to something this is one of those books that tells its story a lot more through its narration that its action.

I enjoyed The Bone Sparrow, and it's great these kinds of stories exist, but I wasn't blown away by it as a book itself. Fans of The Boy in Striped Pajamas would enjoy this, and if anyone needs reminding that refugees are unfairly persecuted without reason this is the book for them. I would've liked the glimpses of magical realism to have been developed a little more, but all in all it was a good read.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30057394-the-bone-sparrow

Friday 1 July 2016

There Will Be Lies

24232997

Book Title: There Will Be Lies
Author: Nick Lake
Date Started: June 27th 2016
Date Completed: June 29th 2016
Genres: Thriller, Adventure, Contemporary, Fantasy
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Star
Final Rating: Two stars
Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I don't know what this book was - did it even know what it was? It couldn't make up it's mind on plot line, genre, characters or even writing style. I feel like maybe a few years ago I might have found it entertaining enough to pass the time, but right now it was just disappointing for a book that's been nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Writing that tries to use slang and copy a certain dialect - especially when that style is 'teenage talk' - has always irritated me. I have yet to find anyone who can pull it off without being stiff and patronising, and I found especially in There Will Be Lies that its inclusion made me genuinely dislike some of the characters because it felt so forced and unnatural. I think this was made worse by the contrast of the Apache folklore: I'm all up for modern twists on traditional tales, but I found that the folklore was almost entirely eclipsed by the frankly dull narration of the protagonist. As someone not very familiar with Apache culture and stories I would've really loved to learn about it through the book, but it was in way no used to its full potential and I don't feel like I got to see the culture as much as I would have liked.

There Will Be Lies started one plot line and then and veered down a different road, and then again changed directions halfway through to the point where I don't actually know what the main story was - all I can see are events that turned into side stories that got dropped. Thrillers are about twists ad turns, fair enough, but too much was being shoved in without any development to take over story that it was hard to know what was really happening and what to even take as a threat because for all you knew it would be gone in twenty pages.
Moreover, we get almost two sides side-by-side anyway: Shelby's real life runaway road-trip and her mysterious 'Dreaming' world following Apache folklore. Again, I'm fine with this sort of thing in theory - parallel stories that give you hints about what's happening is actually really interesting for me - but I didn't feel like these two stories matched up. I'm still trying to work out if Shelby's 'Dreaming' was pure fantasy or magical realism, but aside from that I don't understand how it was relevant in the end to the contemporary side of the book. If it was supposed to illustrate her inner feelings it didn't do a very good job, and if something was supposed to happen in her fantasy world to help her real life then all threat was gone if her problems could be solved by some overpowered magic at the last hurdle.

None of the characters in this book really connected with me. Whether it was the style of writing, the one-dimensional personalities of the people (I don't care if they tell lies, it doesn't make them developed characters), or their position in the narrative, I had a hard time rooting for any of them - and having said that a lot of them flick in and out of even being included in the story so there weren't huge periods of time hen I could even get to know them.
Shelby was a really dislikable protagonist. Within the first chapter I was just shaking my head at how judgmental and unpleasant she came off; maybe it was to try and get the teenage feel across, but she was just downright mean at points. And then, when things started to get more serious, instead of growing from her initial flaws, she just fell flat with almost no personality at all. I think a big reason I didn't like this book was because Shelby - the one character who sticks around for the whole thing - was so hard fir me to connect with.

Lake's book was very back-and-forth, stopping-and-starting throughout the whole thing. Thriller's are supposed to be hard to put down and fast-paced, but there was barely enough of a solid story in the first place to hold the tension together. While I appreciate the fantasy element running through the story and its attempt to create some diversity of plot, what actually happened was the time in the real world and Shelby's 'Dreaming' felt so disconnected that we were switched between two different stories, and not building towards one big climax like a thriller should.

I admit I didn't know very much about There Will Be Lies going into it, but I still has reasonable expectations considering it's advertised as being nominated for awards and by an award-winning author. But having finished it I feel like it was nominated for featuring some unconventional issues in abstract ways but ultimately overlooks the fact that they're not actually explored that much. What I can understand seems like a brilliant inclusion of diversity came off like tokenism to me, and with little substance underneath (to the point where I couldn't work out where to even mention it in this review because it didn't add anything to the story).

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24232997-there-will-be-lies