Sunday 31 December 2017

TheDaisyDeer's Best Books of 2017

Reading Year In Review

Books Read: 88
Novels Read: 42
*Pages Read: 23,693
*according to GoodReads so take it with a pinch of salt 

Novel with the Best Story read in 2017:

The One Hundred Nights of Hero
Isabel Greenberg
Read my summary review of The One Hundred Nights of Hero here!
honourable mentions to:
Circe, Madeline Miller
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt


Novel with the Best Writing read in 2017:

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The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood

Novel with the Best Entertainment read in 2017:

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Resurrection
Derek Landy


Best New Discovery read in 2017:

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I Love This Part
Tillie Walden


Best Fantasy Novel read in 2017:

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The Final Empire
Brandon Sanderson


Best Sci-Fi Novel read in 2017:

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Invictus
Ryan Graudin


Best Dystopian Novel read in 2017:

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Our Dark Duet
V. E. Schwab
Read my review of Our Dark Duet here!
honourable mentions to:
The Song Rising, Samantha Shannon


Best Historical Novel read in 2017:

Circe
Madeline Miller


Best Contemporary Novel read in 2017:

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The Foxhole Court
Nora Sakavic
Read my review of The Foxhole Court here!
honourable mentions to:
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
Release, Patrick Ness


Best Mystery/Thriller Novel read in 2017:

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The Goldfinch
Donna Tartt


Best Graphic Novel read in 2017:

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On a Sunbeam
Tillie Walden

Best Poetry Collection read in 2017:

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Hold Your Own
Kate Tempest

Best Review Copy [not otherwise mentioned] read in 2017:

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Spellslinger
provided by Hot Key Books
Sebastian de Castell

Friday 29 December 2017

The Faceless Ones

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Book Title: The Faceless Ones
Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #3
Date Started: December 26th 2017
Date Completed: December 28th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Horror, Young Adult, Childrens
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star
Final Rating: Five stars
Review:

Rereading this series is like discovering them all over again, regardless of the fact I've skim-read and reread my favourite parts more times than I can count. The Faceless Ones was never my favourite, and that holds, but reading the story in full again makes me appreciate the hints for the future and the character arcs so much. This was really the book that kicked the Skulduggery Pleasant series into action and for that it's special.

What gets me about these now that I'm older is how well executed they are for younger audiences. I remember reading something where Derek was defending his use of violence in these books - and yes, there is a lot of violence - and saying that the whole point is that it's serious. There is murder, and there are violent people, and there are heroes getting seriously hurt. Because it's a world in which those things happen, and Derek takes that seriously. Which means that Valkyrie, even when she's 14, is involved. But it's not taken lightly; she does get hurt, and people acknowledge that she's too young to be in the middle of that.

In general, Derek is aware of the problematic elements of being a hero but he doesn't shy away from it, even if his hero is a pre-teen. Instead of dismissing her and her abilities, the characters TALK to Valkyrie about it; they make sure she understands the real danger she's in, and they ASK her how she feels. And respect her answers. She's a 14-year-old in an adult's dangerous world, but that doesn't mean she should be patronised or restricted, it means that she should learn and be protected until she can defend herself. My favourite line of this book is Kenspeckle telling her 'you seem to have this ridiculous notion that being treated like a child means to be treated with any less respect than an adult'. These books are mature without being cruel, accessible without being patronising, and empowering without being manipulative.

Which leads me on to our protagonist. When I was younger, I basically remembered my age as being a year younger than Valkyrie - that's how much of a role model she was to me (despite the fact we aren't really that similar - I'm far more a Tanith). And rightly so. Val is a great protagonist not because she's a hero, but because she so regularly makes mistakes and learns from them. It's 'how to write a children's protagonist 101', but Derek approaches it with a very adult perspective; this isn't a one-off per book, this is creating a solid human being. She's a reckless smart-mouth who can be rude at the best of times, but she's clever and kind too.

To be honest, I could sit down over three or four days and read this entire series cover-to-cover without stopping. I never want to put them down and I feel so at home with them that I wouldn't really need anything else. It's become somewhat of a tradition to say this in every review of this series, but Skulduggery was the equivalent of Harry Potter in my childhood, and I think they're some of the best children's books that can be read by anyone out there.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

How to Be Both

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Book Title: How to Be Both
Author: Ali Smith
Date Started: December 3rd 2017
Date Completed: December 26th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Historical, Adult
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

I'm a bit sore about this book; I think my enjoyment was seriously affected by the formatting on the Kindle version. I still enjoyed it, but I ended up being more concerned with if I'd missed something at the start of the book that I wasn't able to properly focus on the book itself. If I hadn't read up on the formatting while I was reading it I would've been completely lost, and I was still pretty confused.

If you don't know, half the print run of How to Be Both has Francesco's story at the start of the book, and the other half have George's first. The idea is that everyone who reads it will read it slightly differently, and have a different experience. Which, for the record, I think is a great idea. Until you mess it up on the Kindle format - which a lot of people read. In the Kindle version, BOTH editions are included in the same file meaning that a) I felt like I was reading a 400ish page book slower than a tortoise b) when you actually finish the story, you start reading the exact same thing again thinking it's just deja vu and c) most readers are always going to read Francesco first unless they know about the formatting style and skip halfway through the book.

The last of those I'm actually grateful for. Francesco's story takes place in the Renaissance, while George's is modern day. I don't think I would've personally been pulled into the story had it started with George - that's just personal preference but the exploration of a female painter hiding as a man to be able to work is fascinating, while George's story follows more of what you immediately think of for Ali Smith: modern, political, everyday person dealing with the internal struggles of life. All good, but you collect far more references and parallels having read the historical era first since the developments in society move forward rather than backwards. Perhaps the idea is that you continue to reread the story the other way around afterwards and see how the experience is different.

The thing that always gets me about Smith's writing is how it somehow captures perfect, pure moments of human experience. Subtle, insignificant things when we go through them, but translating the way a mother smiles after her child says something, or the shock registering when someone discovers your secret - capturing those tiny reactions so perfectly in writing astounds me. That's what makes her writing stand out, and it's why I always come back to it.

The only downside is it doesn't string together for some people, and I have to count myself in that. Those moments are wonderful, and the prose is easy-to-read and understand, but the story beats don't connect as intuitively for everyone and can be hard to follow. Smith's writing isn't for everyone (though I disagree with people who say she's unnecessarily difficult and pedantic - she isn't at all, she's just honest), which is a shame since it discusses things that are so relevant to today: what is it to exist in this era? How do we interact with the past, as well as the present?

It's always fascinating to read Smith's books, but I am sad that I don't connect to them in the same way a lot of people do. Though part of me wonders if it is an age thing. It doesn't have to be patronising to admit that the number of years of human experience you've had affects the way you perceive and absorb things. I'd be interested to read some of her work again when I'm older and see if I enjoy it more.

Sunday 3 December 2017

The Cruel Prince

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Book Title: The Cruel Prince
Author: Holly Black
Date Started: November 22nd 2017
Date Completed: December 3rd 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

The Cruel Prince reminded me why I wanted to get away from mainstream Young Adult books - I don't think the whole genre is bad, and I don't necessarily think this book was terrible, but I'm so sick of romance being the only thing that's paid proper attention to in a story. I adored the use of traditional faerie - it's one of the reasons Holly's been such an important writer for me since I was a kid - but that was about all I liked in this one.

In terms of the overall story, I felt like this novel was very repetitive at the start. I'm not a fan of the bullying trope at the best of times (once you've read it once, you know it regardless of if you swap out school books for fairy fruit). The Cruel Prince just had the same scene several times over without much development between them. But then, once you pass the halfway mark, suddenly everything becomes very fast and rushed. The amount of exposition and action shoved into the end of this book was too much - it almost felt like two books pushed into one so there was a build-up at the start.

That being said, my biggest complaint is the romance. If you've been around for a while, you know this isn't a new thing. For some reason that I don't understand considering the idea of female empowerment and independence so many modern YA authors seem to support, romance continues to be all-consuming when it's put in a Young Adult book with a female protagonist. It doesn't happen with the male protagonists - they might have a love interest, but it's generally given a balance of attention. But if a book is targetted towards a female audience, the romance has to get in the way of the heroine's quest. It gets very, very boring.

Amongst this, the romances tend to be really unhealthy in this book. They're explicitly revealed as so (eventually), but they're still treated with such casualness that I couldn't help but be uncomfortable. The man who raises Jude, and who she looks up to (regardless of what she says in her head) literally murdered both her parents in front of her. (That's not a spoiler, it's in the first ten pages.) These unhealthy relationships also get in the way of important ones the protagonist has - most significantly her sisters. Female-to-female relationships are so important, but they're neglected in favour of romance here seemingly without major consequence. Yes, characters can change. But they haven't in the course of this book. Actions speak louder than words.

Although, that also contradicts my next gripe. While the characters don't develop as such, they're too volatile throughout the entirety of this story to be convincing. There were times I didn't understand what was happening because a character had acted so out of the blue - a reveal I didn't realise was a reveal until it was too late because their motivations didn't make sense. Maybe I struggled to understand them because I found them all dislikeable (flawed characters are fine, but horrible people are hard to engage with), but regardless it built up another barrier between me and the story.

I'm really sad I didn't enjoy The Cruel Prince. As I've said, Holly has been a huge figure in my reading since I read The Spiderwick Chronicles, which was one of the first books that got me into reading as a whole. Her exploration of faerie and it's parallels to the real world are always fascinating, I'm just disappointed that the YA cliche of romance got in the way of this one.

Sunday 26 November 2017

Blog Tour: Twice the Speed of Dark


Book Title: Twice the Speed of Dark
Author: Lulu Allison
Date Started: November 11th 2017
Date Completed: November 22nd 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Magical Realism, Adult
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

◆ Thanks to Lulu for sending me her lovely book for review ◆

At the heart of Twice the Speed of Dark is the dark subject of domestic violence, but the black hole of Anna’s story is grief. How does one deal with the loss of a child? Where does the responsibility of blame get placed when that loss is the consequence of something darker? And why is justice not final to those involved?

The story of this novel goes in little circles like a cyclone as Anna goes through the transition of her grief. Again and again, she finds herself in the same place, thinking the exact same things. Personally, it circled a little bit much at the start for me; for about a week Anna sits sullenly and writes about the deaths of strangers across the globe. In fairness, it establishes the depths of trouble our protagonist is in.

Written almost like poetry, the exploration of grief reminded me a little bit of Margaret Atwood mixed with Jeanette Winterson: those long, visually-conjuring metaphors of idleness and isolation. By throwing a dash of magical realism into the mix, we go down the Claire Fuller route. (Overall, I wish there’d be more of the magical realism. I liked the way it played about with the timeline and created personas for people that weren’t in Anna’s immediate area of contact.)

The unhealthy cycle Anna is forcing herself through (and there are definitely times when our flawed protagonist makes active decisions to prolong her grief, because anything else feels like a betrayal, or impossible) is almost aesthetically around Anna. The vistas from the holiday she takes to escape the return of her daughter’s murderer are bright and sunny, but it’s like there’s a fog around Anna. While it’s definitely grief that is the focus of this story, I can’t help draw comparisons to other mental health issues.

But, ultimately, Twice the Speed of Dark isn’t just a fly-on-the-wall view of Anna’s grief; it’s also the transitional stages of it that she goes through. Almost ten years after her daughter’s death, things are finally ready to shift a little - sparked by the catalyst of the murderer’s return. While I can’t say that grief is an emotion I’ve yet to have experienced on any real scale, from an outsider’s perspective the book seemed to capture it pretty well. That stuck place where everything feels the same, the physical tension your body gets just from the reminder of circumstances - all things I’m pretty familiar with through depression. But what shifts this for Anna is a somewhat tried-and-tested solution, but a true one nonetheless.

I always like it when stories use the kindness of strangers to provide a different way of looking at things, or even just a quiet nudge outside of what a character would expect. Chance encounters are sometimes criticised in fiction for being just that - fictional. But anyone who’s even just travelled on their own knows that sometimes an unexpected connection with someone you’re unlikely to see again can make a world of difference. Without going too far into spoiling the book, Lulu uses this not so much to solve all of Anna’s problems, but to give her the anonymity from her life that she needs to come to terms with it.

I think it’s interesting that this book is coming out at the same time as the film Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri. The universe has funny little ways of drawing comparisons itself, but the two pieces almost seem to be different forks off the same road. While I haven’t seen the film, I’m aware it’s also about a mother dealing with the murder of her daughter and the injustice of the perpetrator walking around. While Lulu’s novel takes a more meditative and magical realist stance on the subject, I have a feeling the emotional but go-getting feminism in both works will compliment each other well. If you want to prepare for the film, pick up Twice the Speed of Dark - and if not, you might want to after you’ve read this.



Over the next few weeks, Twice the Speed of Dark is touring across the blogger community.
Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour!

You can buy Twice the Speed of Dark straight from Unbound or Amazon
and find Lulu on her Website, Twitter and Instagram.


Thursday 2 November 2017

The Subtle Knife

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Book Title: The Subtle Knife
Author: Philip Pullman
Series: His Dark Materials #2
Date Started: October 23rd 2017
Date Completed: November 1st 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Science Fiction
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

When I reread Northern Lights I was a little disappointed that it didn't quite live up to what I remembered as a child. Honestly, I can't actually remember if I ever read the whole series as books - I listened to the radio plays several times over - but I do remember that The Subtle Knife was always my favourite.

The further you go into this series, the more you realise how intimately everything is planned and laid in place. Every detail is part of that plan. It's one massive story split into three parts; arguably each book can't stand totally alone on its own because everything's tied so closely together. Judge that as you will, but I think the feat of proper focus and vision across what must be around 1,000 pages to tell one story is amazing. Pullman knows exactly what he's doing every step of the way, and as the reader you can feel that and let yourself fall in and enjoy the ride.

The Subtle Knife itself actually takes place over a short period of time, but a lot happens in it. These books are a lot slower burning than I remember. I can see why a lot of my peers didn't get hooked on these when they were younger. As magical as they are at that age, it does take its time for things to happen and that can turn some readers off. But I think, in the grand scheme of things, it's all the better for it. We needed the build-up of the first book to understand the gravity of the situation the characters are now in. Jumping between the worlds and that exploration is so much more exciting now that we've experienced being in only a single world: we're stepping out of that comfort zone with Lyra and it makes it all the more exciting.

I like Will a lot. As Much as I love Lyra she can be a brat sometimes. That little annoying twinge I found with her when rereading Northern Lights is definitely a big part of her character, but Will balances her out. He doesn't change her, but he brings out a more patient side. And she likewise pushes him to do bolder things than if he was alone. They work very well as a pair, and the story is better off for it.

It's not quite as magical as I remember, but still very very good. I pick up on a lot more of the intelligence underneath the symbolism and plot these days, and while I appreciate it I think it's funny how the story points were the only thing that really filtered down to me when I was younger. But that is, of course, what makes a brilliant children's book, and why His Dark Materials is such an important series of books. It challenges a lot of things without readers even noticing, and promotes freedom, intelligence and bravery under harmful authority. They're good books to be modern classics.

Monday 23 October 2017

Red Sister

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Book Title: Red Sister
Author: Mark Lawrence
Series: Book of the Ancestor #1
Date Started: October 9th 2017
Date Completed: October 23rd 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Star
Final Rating: Two stars
Review:

Assassins? In a convent? By a key modern fantasy writer I have yet to discover? What could go wrong? A lot, apparently.

Where to start with this book? I'm at a loss, honestly; the book has such high ratings, and I've been hearing about Lawrence for a long time. Yet, Red Sister doesn't seem to correlate to that evidence for me at all. To start with, I found the writing hard to follow. I'm well schooled in the dense writing of a lot of high fantasies, but this novel wasn't that packed with information, it was just dull and non-specific. There were lots of characters, headed by a protagonist who might have been strong in the world, but wasn't particularly in the writing.

I got 32% of the way through this book - about 150 pages. In that time, the story alternated between flashback scenes and training sequences. That is literally all that happens. Nothing else but that. I thought around the 25% mark that there was enough worldbuilding shoved in and that soon something would at least kick off in the background. 5% later, still nothing. I attempted a little more, but I'd already lost any enthusiasm I had had for this book. There's the predictable 'chosen one' mythos discussed, but no evidence yet. It's hard to keep attention on a story when you know exactly where it's going to go, but it doesn't go there for a long time. What are you waiting for anymore?

Maybe I gave up too soon and Red Sister turns great later on. But 150 pages is more than enough time for something other than training to begin. In the end, there wasn't enough to keep me motivated, and life is too short to spend reading books you aren't enjoying.

Monday 9 October 2017

Tower of Dawn

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Book Title: Tower of Dawn
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Series: Throne of Glass #6
Date Started: October 2rd 2017
Date Completed: October 9th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

Did Tower of Dawn need to be a separate book? No. Did it need to be over 600 pages? No. Was it enjoyable and worth it? Yes, but thanks to the new characters added to this insane Game of Thrones-size cast. Is it all going to be too much for the final book? Quite possibly, but I can hope.

Personally, I really would've rather Empire of Storms had been longer or cut into two smaller books, with everyone's stories running parallel. I understand that it might have been character overload with the multiple narratives in the previous book, but it felt like a lot of this was explaining how it paralleled to the events of EoS. As fascinating as learning about the Southern Continent and its people was, Tower of Dawn lacked the pace and relevance of the previous books in the series. I think coming off of Empire of Storms it was always going to be a hard job since that book is absolutely driven in every word to move the story on; we get here and there isn't the sense of anticipation and importance we've grown used to.

I have to say, I found the romance in this instalment incredibly dominating. It's always been a big aspect of the series, but it was getting in the way of the plot in this one. I appreciate the consideration that went into Chaol's feelings about past events and people, and the realistic ambivalence and his underlying self-criticism towards them, but that doesn't explain how he latches on so quickly to new people. There are some cases of instalove in this book, and while I don't hate the couples themselves, it feels like Sarah knew who she wanted together by the end by wanted them done and dusted as soon as possible. All the other pairings in this series have had at least two or three books to develop their feelings and relationships towards each other - and that's why we get behind them; because it feels like they're grown together, not stared across the room and started lusting other someone. But suddenly six weeks is enough for Chaol to be making serious commitments to new people.

The big uncertainty floating around this book is its representation of physical disability. I have yet to read any 'own voices' reviews, though I plan to, but from my admittedly lacking awareness I think it was done alright. Sarah treated the subject with respect and pushed through a positive and supportive commentary through her characters without it being patronising. The one thing I'd mark down was the fact that Chaol's injury was rather conveniently healed - far better than what a lot of writers would do, no one waved a magic wand and made it disappear with no trace it was ever there. But it has been considerably improved to make it easier on the story in the future.

It is a shame that this book is mostly carried by the new characters - but also not, because I really like the new additions to the cast. I'm not the world's biggest fan of Chaol, and Tower of Dawn definitely made me like him more at points, but there are still times he needs to get over himself. I appreciate his personality inclines to being self-critical and somewhat short-tempered, but he throws the blame and then sulks too much for me to get behind him as a protagonist

It's a good thing, then, that I adore Yrene. And that, really, this is more her story than his. I don't remember massively liking her in The Assassin and the Healer novella, but damn can I get behind a woman who is a peacemaker and healer, and is at times a little easy to manipulate, but is loyal and brave despite it. I'm so happy that Sarah is continuing to write such a great variety of female characters who all possess both feminine and masculine traits and aren't ashamed of either. We need kick-ass assassins, but we need strong hearted healers too.

While I have my issues with Tower of Dawn, I did enjoy it. To the point where I was reading it on buses and between meetings, and I'm not a fan of reading on public transport. Overall, I think it felt disjointed from the Throne of Glass story and I was constantly being distracted by the fact we were only following Chaol - just like I was constantly aware that he was absent while reading Empire of Storms. I certainly wouldn't skip it; it not only has plot points that you'll need going forward, but it is genuine fun - I couldn't put it down most of the time. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I would have had it been part of the main story.

Side note (spoilers): Everything was worth it for the epilogue. I needed at least a little closure on Aelin in that coffin. Even though I'm mad I have to wait a year to see what they're going to do with her.

Tuesday 3 October 2017

Shadowblack

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Book Title: Shadowblack
Author: Sebastian de Castell
Series: Spellslinger #2
Date Started: September 29th 2017
Date Completed: October 3rd 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was so excited about where Kellen went, so when I saw the second one listed on NetGalley it took me under three seconds to request it. Lo and behold, I read it in under five days during the chaos that is university and had great fun doing so.

Back when I read Spellslinger, what grabbed me was the quick-witted dialogue and the humour running throughout the story and, of course, Kellen as our protagonist. Shadowblack still had that humour, but it wasn't quite present. This book felt more serious, but not necessarily darker. I think there was a lot of world building around Kellen and the Jan'Tep people that made the stakes higher before things kicked off in the last book, and events were a little more rushed here. I would've liked more of a balance between that silver-tongue dialogue and the mystery-style plot.

What sets this series out is its western genre. Especially for an audience of young adults, who don't often get that cultural experience of the genre (both in books and things like film and television), I think it's something different straight off the cuff. Its combination with high fantasy is a really nice fit as well, even though I would never have thought it would work.

While I disagree, I've seen it compared to Firefly. A big part of this, I'm sure, is to do with the clearly episodic structure of the series. Even two books in it's easy to see that it would make a great TV show because it already feels set up as a long-form story that has individual plots broken into it. We have the same characters and basic magic system, but with each book we're been taken out into this world and shown a different society. It's really good for building the feeling that Kellen's universe is expansive because we're getting to explore it with him. There's also something to say about the fact each book ties up its own plot. I feel like I could leave the series anytime I wanted, and that freedom - at a time where book series' are so confining and it feels like a marketing ploy half the time - makes me want to keep reading. Because the author has given me the freedom to choose, as opposed to trying to manipulate me into half finishing a story in one book.

The one significant issue I have with this series is its female characters. They're not terrible, but I'm unconvinced by them. I feel like de Castell is trying to make diverse and capable women, but falling short in a couple of fundamental ways. The positions he puts them in for one; the use of masculine characteristics to imply they're strong; the fact that we have yet to meet a young woman who doesn't fall in love with Kellen (past his sister, but that doesn't count). I remember having the same uncertainty in Spellslinger and I'm sad that that concern has come up again.

Although I was excited to see where this series went, I didn't enjoy Shadowblack quite as much as Spellslinger. I think there was more focus on the mystery than the characters and culture - which was what I really liked about the first book. Having said that, I still read it for a couple of hours at a time because I was enjoying it so much. Hopefully, in the future we'll go back to exploring the people and their societies over the plot.

Friday 29 September 2017

Invictus

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Book Title: Invictus
Author: Ryan Graudin
Date Started: September 26th 2017
Date Completed: September 29th 2017
Genres: Sci-Fi, Historical, Romance
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

Invictus was a lot of fun. You can tell Ryan loved writing it between her darker books because the spirit of it just lifts from the page. I've yet to read one of her books that I haven't really enjoyed. Her work varies in maturity and genre but every time it's a joy to read.

If you're a history nerd, you'll enjoy this book. Not necessarily for its accuracy (though it could've been much worse - there weren't any specific examples where I was screaming 'that's not what it was like'), but for the various little references scattered through. I'm sure there were some I didn't get as modern history is so much my thing, but the ancient history and renaissance eras were enjoyable just for the little jokes thrown in. (I'd also like to mention how nice it is to have a time travelling story set in the future that doesn't have to go to our present for a cheap 'oh look it's us' gimmick.)

Thank you universe for giving me a stand-alone YA book that wraps up its story. It's such a breath of fresh air to have a book that doesn't have to extend into a series to finish its plot. It's ridiculous how hard it is to find them these days that its a selling point on its own for me. And Invictus proves the point that you don't have to make your story into a franchise for it to be compelling and enjoyable. Yes, the story started to crumble a little bit in believability towards the end, but it's a time travelling book, how can it not? This novel has a well-paced, self-contained story that you can get properly invested in because you know what you're signing up for. I really hope YA publishers start noticing that stand-alone books are just as valuable as series and start to bring them back.

Like a lot of my favourite authors, what Ryan specialises in is people. Well, people and her worlds; she often has futuristic twists on various eras in our world, but in a way that they end up feeling new and unique. With Invictus, that side of the coin is already solved with the time travelling aspect, but the characters are their own element. What pushes this story at times when it might otherwise drag is the dynamics between the crew members and their ability to be believable but still young and, at times, irresponsible and wild. They're not exactly rebels (you're not fooling anyone, Far) but they're young people free to jump around history. Their likeability pushes what is a story that becomes a bit silly at times, but you can buy into it because it suits the characters and fits into its own canon. The worst thing a book can do is misunderstand what it is and take itself too seriously or not seriously enough. Invictus strikes a good balance between the two.

I'm generally not the biggest fan of sci-fi or time travel in books, but Invictus was still great fun for me. The whole crew-relationships and crime-heist thievery with a futuristic twist is always a winner. People are comparing it to Firefly, and while I politely say that it can't touch Firefly's genius, add a little dash of Star Trek, Roman Mysteries and Back to the Future and you get pretty close.

Tuesday 26 September 2017

The Power

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Book Title: The Power
Author: Naomi Alderman
Date Started: September 16th 2017
Date Completed: September 26th 2017
Genres: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

The Power is a science-fiction(ish) thriller through and through, that's stepped out of its bounds into some gender politics, but without conviction. It's a victim of its own success in the way that it's not the kind of book that it's been made out to be - which is a shame because what it actually is in concept isn't a bad novel.

The big hype around this book is its look at women and their relationship to power when suddenly they all develop the ability to strike electricity from their bodies. It definitely makes you think about misogyny when the roles are reversed; men having to have registered female guardians; men being harassed on the street because the women feel powerful; women thinking that men want to be shocked during sex because it's 'excitingly dangerous' etc. But I wouldn't call it feminism. Yes, the conclusions we might eventually draw in some way support the desire to get rid of stiff gender roles and expectations, but the events that happen are women becoming superior to men - which is not feminism. What worries me about this book is that it's being heralded as a work of feminist literature but it's showing the wrong way to deal with gender violence, and some people aren't going to read the satire underneath.

Alderman is clearly a thriller writer - and a good one in that respect. But I don't think thriller was the right genre to explore this story in. Yes, the 'power' strongly influences and drives the events in the book, but half of the time we're looking at the drug trade and journalism in war zones, just with the gender swapped around. It doesn't make much of a difference in the end. I almost wish a different writer had taken this idea and ran with it, because I think a more focused exploration on what's actually happening to the politics and culture would've been more interesting. In all fairness, I don't think this was ever intended to be a literary comment on misogyny. But, again, it's a victim of its own success in that way, and now isn't able to stand up to what people expect of it.

There were so many different directions this story could've gone in. There was so much you could've done with it, that I'm a little puzzled with the choices that Alderman went with. Again, the thriller angle didn't fit it for me, but I think she knew there was a lot to be done with the idea. But instead of choosing the best bits and focusing on them, or even trying to give a brief view over lots of diverse areas, we end up with a book that simultaneously tries to do too much with too many characters, and ends up doing very little at all. We've got six(ish) protagonists that are in different places in the world but actually have somewhat similar backgrounds and desires. I would've been interested to see what women in absolute poverty went after they got the power - and not just in one chapter where the journalist writes an article about them. Because of this, when we reached the end, I was underwhelmed because I hadn't really connected with any of the characters (either through their lack of diversity from each other or because I never got to spend enough time with each of them). Not that there was any sort of clear triumph or tragedy by the end anyway. I'm all for quiet endings, but I'd all but settled on the fact that this was a thriller novel by then.

I'm left with the confusion that I can't tell if the female rebellion of dominance was at the centre of this book, or a means to an end. In basic terms, all I can see the reversal of roles being used for is to create a tense environment. It's not really saying anything (constructive, anyway) about gender roles. And in that way it's successful: the mix-up of hierarchy puts the reader on uneven footing, where we're not completely sure how things are going to work out because it's not what we first expect. But at the same time, in our culture when you write something that so graphically addresses gender violence and aggression, you have to accept that it means something. I feel like The Power doesn't own up to the responsibility of what it's saying. Does it even know what's it's saying? Is it actually saying anything?!

I was interested in reading The Power mainly because it won the Baileys prize, as I'm sure a lot of people were. It probably won it as one of the more accessible books from the selection, but that's because it's not literary fiction. Not that it should have to be, of course, but I think that while this novel might be a gateway book into more complex literary stories, it falls short in too many places to stand up to what people are calling it.

Saturday 16 September 2017

The History of Bees

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Book Title: The History of Bees
Author: Maja Lunde
Date Started: September 6th 2017
Date Completed: September 16th 2017
Genres: Historical, Mystery
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Star
Final Rating: Two stars
Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I got 27% through this book and gave up not because it was terrible, but because I was genuinely uninterested and was avoiding reading as a result. Nothing happened nor started to happen in what I read, so I was terribly motivated to carry on.

The big thing that turned me off of The History of Bees is how little worldbuilding we're given. I think it was so important to how well this book was going to be pulled off since we have only one story actually told in our historical canon, and the other two in progressively worse states of a dystopian-ish/sci-fi-ish future (the fact that I couldn't really work out which of those genres it was supposed to be similar to proves my point). It made it really hard to sympathise or even really follow the characters, as many of their dilemmas were circumstantial; providing for the family, dealing with a child who doesn't want to follow your footsteps, raising a child who you know essentially doesn't have a future. I wasn't given enough of an idea of how significant these things were in the context to feel anything for them.

You could rename this book 'Bad Parenting in Three Different Centuries'. From what I read, that was the crux of the story. I would like to think that it develops somewhat further than just that, but I wasn't prepared to carry on and find out. Everyone was dislikeable for me, and as such when mashed together with the lack of contextual information it became three family dramas in a world where I couldn't understand the motivations of anyone. It just felt like three sets of parents making questionable decisions and feeling sorry for themselves.
Another issue I found for the early parts of the book was the lack of cohesion between the stories. I'm all for split stories or multiple perspectives, but if you're going to do that there needs to be a link in situation, story or at least tone. You can't just use it as a way to cut somewhere else when things get boring or you want to extend tension. You start to feel cheated as a reader and have even less of a chance to connect with the characters.

This book gets comparisons to Station Eleven, understandably. Multiple stories across decades where humanity goes into a somewhat apocalyptic scenario, all linked (apparently?) and named after a book that happens to be in the story itself. Personally, I don't think The History of Bees has the spirit and imagination of Station Eleven, but perhaps if you're more into science than performance arts you might prefer it.

Wednesday 6 September 2017

Alias Grace

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Book Title: Alias Grace
Author: Margaret Atwood
Date Started: August 27th 2017
Date Completed: September 6th 2017
Genres: Historical, Mystery
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:


Alias Grace is my third Atwood novel, and while I enjoyed it and appreciated it at least to some level, I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. It is the story of a woman incarcerated and scrutinised and with few remorses left herself, but one that is unbiased in its directness, but of course fuelled by the injustices its protagonist has faced.

It's true when they say that Atwood is almost like a different writer with every book, but her humour is still the same and the voice consistent. I was worried people meant that her books are hit and miss down to your preferences, but just because they cover different time periods, different topics and different tenses doesn't mean that they don't all have her signature style.
What made Alias Grace interesting was how it kept you on your toes. We never really know if our narrator is reliable or not, nor do we know if we can trust the other characters around her. You aren't sure if you're being lied to and your reaction is just sympathy and outrage, or if you should be more suspicious and risk being cruel. It's the game the characters are playing and it feels like you're caught in the middle of it.

As with most books in this vein, the pacing is slow but you do feel the progress as you go. It's a thoughtful book over excitement. The crime mystery genre feels somewhat misleading, as it's much more of a literary fiction novel. Things play out and the reader is right in the middle of it, but also watches them with some distance. I enjoyed the way it looked at misogyny and the 1800s culture in early America. It's not a period I'm that familiar with, but the text is thorough enough to make you feel at home even if you don't know the setting.
Of course, because we begin with the awareness that Grace was involved in the murders of Mr Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery, there's a momentum that pushes the whole story through. We know that the narrative is building up to something, and although I wouldn't say that expectation of a reveal is dealt with in the most satisfying way, there's a definite feeling of closure even when things turn sour for many of those involved.

Though it wasn't my favourite novel by Atwood that I've read, Alias Grace was again a brilliant book from her works. Quite unlike anything I've read so far, it plays with your expectations and suspicions and puts a bare woman in front of you and piles you with accusations and sympathies, and asks who you believe.

Sunday 27 August 2017

Under the Pendulum Sun

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Book Title: Under the Pendulum Sun
Author: Jeannette Ng
Date Started: August 19th 2017
Date Completed: August 26th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Romance, Mystery
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

This book had a promising start and I found myself pleasantly surprised in the opening chapters. But the more I read, the more it felt like I was walking in circles - albeit, very pretty and whimsical circles in this creative interpretation of the the old-fashioned kind of fae - but in aimless directions nonetheless.

Under the Pendulum Sun's strength was undeniably in its whimsicality and imagination. I haven't read any Young Adult fantasies that draw so strongly from the 19th Century style of fae. This was a breath of fresh air for me; the 1800s is a favourite of mine, and I read a lot of this kind of thing when I was little. Ng also adds to the traditional ideas of the fae with her own creations which was what made this book interesting. The only problem was that I don't think it was her priority. At some points there's a great deal of care and imagination that goes into describing and explaining the world (how the Pendulum Sun works, the sea whales that live in the ground, the clockwork dancers at the ball), but at others it's lacking in much detail at all if the characters are more important at the time. It's a shame since the world building was the most enjoyable part of the book.

The story of this book takes after traditional gothic mysteries, where the protagonist is told precious little and has to work it out for themselves. The problem is that 80% of Under the Pendulum Sun is Cathy complaining that no one will tell her anything, and that's about it. As you can imagine, it gets old and repetitive pretty fast (which is why the elaboration in the world building was the interesting part and should've been given more attention). I also have to say, I didn't entirely understand the explanation of what was really going on when it was revealed at the end. I'm still not sure what actually did happen.
This is, in part, to do with the abundance of Christianity in the plot. At first I thought it was for the time period and the connections to the fae were interestingly done, but as I read on it became so tied into the plot that it became harder to understand all the metaphors and references. It expected you to know quite a bit about the teachings of the Bible (either that or it thought referencing it every sentence is all the explanation you need), and since I'm not overly familiar with it I was lost pretty quickly. I thought I'd be able to appreciate the references and the eventual conclusion of the novel without being given this information, but I don't think I was right.

Character-wise, I wasn't overwhelmed. It's a small cast and people drop in and out when necessary to the plot. In the story they're all pieces in the Pale Queen's games, but in the context of the novel they're the author's puppets instead. It doesn't feel like any especially meaningful relationships are developed past that of the romance. Regardless of the morality of the situation, I didn't feel much chemistry between the characters as lovers (ironically they felt more genuine in their previous relationship). I'm still not entirely sure if the reader was supposed to feel conflicted about their affections, but I was just waiting for the next piece of magic honestly.

Under the Pendulum Sun is a creative and different look at the fae that got too bogged down in the complexities of a religion it expects you to know the details of and a controversial romance that lacked chemistry, while you sit there hoping for another whimsical creation to distract from the weak plot.

Saturday 19 August 2017

Weight



Book Title: Weight
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Date Started: August 15th 2017
Date Completed: August 19th 2017
Genres: Historical, Fantasy
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

This book left me feeling a bit eh. There were parts of it that I liked and parts of it that I didn't, but overall I think it wasn't for me. I've struggled with Winterson's writing in the past and I think it's maybe just a clash in what I like to read and how she likes to write.

Weight is a self-aware book. Not necessarily for the whole thing, but the sections where Winterson brought her own life into play between the story pulled me out so far that I struggled to get into it. It didn't help that this book is very short and relies on an understanding of the classical world to begin with (I don't know how accessible this would be if you weren't aware of the style of Greek mythology). I appreciate that the simple writing wants you to look three layers beneath the surface and draw meanings when it's contrasted against modern existence but honestly, it was a bit much for me when I just wanted to know the story.

I really enjoyed the mythological parts of Weight. Where we were being told the story, even if it was in simple straightforward terms. But, like I found with The Stone Gods, I didn't get along with being continually pulled away from what was happening with these symbolic comparisons that were unrelated to the action itself. Being unaware of this myth, I really wanted to get into the heart of the plot, but I kept being pulled out of it. I'm used to following a story and maybe seeing things in the subtext along the way, but I hate being interrupted in the middle. I wanted to see where Atlas and Heracles' story was going, not be suddenly shunted to Winterson's persona writing the book. To be fair, I don't think there's anything wrong with this creative choice, I just personally didn't enjoy it.

I appreciate that Weight is a good addition to the Canongate Myth Series, but it just really was not for me. I think Winterson's writing is simultaneously a bit too much and not enough for my tastes. This might be an interesting book to try her out in since it's very short and shows off the range of her imagination, but I think for me it's shown that I'm not really into her style.

Wednesday 16 August 2017

The Night is For Hunting

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Book Title: The Night is For Hunting
Author: John Marsden
Series: Tomorrow #6
Date Started: August 12th 2017
Date Completed: August 15th 2017
Genres: Dystopian, Action
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Four stars
Review:

It's been a couple of years since I read the previous book in the Tomorrow series, and I was getting a little worried I'd forgotten too much or I wouldn't be able to get into it again. Luckily, I was wrong, and I fell right back into this story. Strangely enough, I think I remembered the majority of major events as they became relevant, and I whizzed through the book. It was very enjoyable.

I'm amazed by how much detail there is in these books. It feels like the plot never stops, but there's so much detail about things that seem boring in theory (I don't have a particularly burning interest in sheep shearing or other farm activities) but weren't when I was actually reading them. I still don't quite understand how a book that doesn't seem to stop the action or the tension can get you so invested that reading about the most mundane things doesn't feel boring. 

The Night is For Hunting is really well balanced between action (as in, motorbikes, running, shoot outs etc.) and downtime (as in, avoiding all of the above while surviving in the bush). Its strength is that it always feels like there's something going on, and it's always engaging. If I were to set out the events that happen, I'd be a bit worried about my attention span while reading. As it was, it took me three sittings to finish this book in its entirety. I couldn't put it down.
The Tomorrow series is a favourite of mine because it deals with that scary, gritty view of teenagers in war. This isn't Divergent (think more How I Live Now), and there are times when it genuinely makes you feel scared and frankly a little bit ill. It's not so graphic and horrible that it's hard to read, but it's honest about what shooting a gun at a human being is like. Being held captive, interrogated and seeing your friends hurt and terrified isn't a tool for dramatic tension, it's an event these characters are experiencing that going to weigh down on them forever.

I still love these characters, after all this time. I think what makes them so good is the fact that Marsden understands teenagers very well. He's not patronising or assuming in their capabilities; they're written with a normality as if they were adults, and are just as able. But he also captures those fleeting moments of youth and doubt that stop them in their tracks and remind them that they're not the trained soldiers they're acting like.
Ellie is one of the best Young Adult protagonists I've come across. Partly because the series in general is very mature and dark, so it only makes sense that the character leading it would be just as tough. But I personally relate to her, and I don't often find that with fictional characters. I find people I'd like to be or like to know, but rarely do I find anyone that I think I'm similar to. But I feel like I'd make the same mistakes she does, and have the same grievances that stop her in her tracks. And I'd like to think I would make the same good choices and hard decisions that she does as well.

It wasn't my favourite in the series, but it rekindled my love for the Tomorrow series. It's a shame there's only one book in the main series left, but I don't think I'm going to wait long to get to it.