The Foxhole Court

Book Title: The Foxhole Court

Author: Nora Sakavic
Series: All for the Game #1

Date Started: January 5th 2017

Date Completed: January 23rd 2017

Genres: Contemporary, Thriller
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four stars

Review:

What drew me to The Foxhole Court was not its premise - I'll be honest, the whole American college experience doesn't interest me in the slightest - but the hype promising that this book was far more than meets the eye. It's somewhat underground cult status intrigued me and from a few positive reactions from people I trust I thought I might as well give it a try for 99p. Best 99p I've maybe ever spent.

I don't feel like I can really give this book more than four stars because it definitely has its weaknesses, but I'm calling it now that this trilogy is going to be five stars by the end of it. The main thing that was stopping me this time - and I'm sure is the reason these books are self-published - is that it's mainly told through information dumping. Strangely enough, I didn't actually mind once I got the swing of it because everything else is so well done, and Sakavic is building such a complex and solid world with it. But it has to be said that until the end we're being told extensive exposition in big chunks in order to appreciate the gravity of the rest of the book - which we do, but it's not structured in the best way it could be. But damn, it's still so good, and the heart of this book far outweighs its weaknesses.

The Foxhole Court is, essentially, about a team of violently troubled misfits that are as much at odds with each other as they are with the outside world. Looking back, there aren't many happy times in this book, it's all conflict. But there's a sort of community in that conflict between the teammates, even if things get out of hand, and that's the whole point of this story. Their distrust of each other is, honestly, completely valid, but they know when there are bigger threats to them on the outside of their group that trumps their dislike for each other.

Speaking of which, what really impressed me was the balance between the typical high school/college sport contemporary and a very dark gangster culture, without it feeling silly. It's a hard balance to pull off because it can so easily fall into the trap of melodrama and pushes the boundaries of what your readers can take seriously. Sakavic dedicates enough time into her world building and character development that we feel the gravity of these two worlds pressing onto our protagonists. I'm still not entirely sold on the sporting sequences (I have no idea what half the drills they put Neil through are), but I was invested enough in the people to find plenty to engage with.

Unanimously, I think it's agreed that the shining strength of these books are the characters. Gangs of misfits have always been my chosen protagonists, and Sakavic did not disappoint; in fact she insisted on going one up and providing arguably twelve protagonists which, amazingly, I was able to keep up with. And they were each good characters too. Varied, developed characters that clearly had their own backstories laid out in Sakavic's head even if they weren't written on the page. Even the arseholes of the group were well developed and believable.

Watching their interactions with each other was what drove me through this book, especially with the adults. Yes, I felt the tension between Neil and Kevin, and I wanted to punch Andrew as much as Matt did, but seeing the respect and true aggression between the team and Coach Wymack was so interesting for me, and I think most telling about all of them. Aside from the fact I love Abby and Wymack the most, they were so powerful in the story even if not directly involved. Adults can often be overlooked in Young Adult fiction, so seeing their inclusion was refreshing, and the power dynamic added yet more weight to what was happening. 

Despite the contemporary genre not being my thing Sakavic's merging with the crime thriller (even if very sparingly) pulled me into this book, but it was the characters that wouldn't let me back out again. I've been walking around today after finishing the book thinking about them and where this story has to go. It has its weaknesses, but it's a debut and I've read far, far worse books from big publishers, so I'm happy to see The Foxhole Court getting the cult status it deserves.

Playing with Fire

Book Title: Playing with Fire

Author: Derek Landy
Series: Skulduggery Pleasant #2

Date Started: December 29th 2016

Date Completed: December 31st 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery, Thriller, Action
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five stars

Review:

I wasn't feeling up for starting a whole new book in the few days before the end of the year, so instead I snuck in a reread of another Skulduggery book. Playing with Fire was my absolute favourite book when I was younger - probably until Death Bringer came out - and like with the first book, I was a bit apprehensive as to whether to would stand up to what I remembered it as. And, again, I needn't have worried. It's funny looking back so early in the series though, because as much as I love it, the game hasn't even begun yet. Playing with Fire is pretty much the definition of 'the good old days'.

I'm starting to understand why - past the sheer awesomeness - I love these books so much. The brilliant female characters and politics definitely have something to do with it, not to mention the action scenes and magic system. But for me personally, what I noticed while rereading Playing with Fire was how these stories run like a film. There's this perfect, succinct imagery that presents what's happening so exactly in your head that you can anticipate and feel the tone with just a few words. And Derek does it without having to fuel it all with cliches - I'm reading these events run off like the most smoothly edited and staged scene in a film and it's utterly brilliant. Derek has a history in screenwriting, and it definitely comes through. But for me as a film student hoping to be a director, how could I not love a something that gives me a crystal clear film in my head?

Oh, this series. Oh the action, oh the plot, oh the one-liners, oh the characters, oh everything. Oh, Derek. Stop it. This guy can spin off a story about a teenage girl and a skeleton detective solving crimes and make it about so much more. He can have a rich magical world and let us focus on the excitement and wonder of it, but have a complex political power play going on in the background. He can give you characters that are diverse and varied, and ones that are utterly evil, but you love them because they feel so real. He can make each book its own story, enjoyable in its own right, and weave it into a much bigger arc without losing the integrity of each individual novel. If we're talking specifically about Playing with Fire he can write several little crime stories in one, a few dozen awesome action scenes, countless points of character development, and make it into a story about saving the world that you haven't seen before. Yes, I am completely biased in everything I say about this series, but I'm biased because it's persuaded me to love it so much.

You can tell Derek's a schemer when you go back and read the early books. There are little hints to what happens later in the story scattered literally everywhere, and it's a shame it's not really something you can appreciate on your first read when you have no idea where things lead. But catching the foreshadowing and ironic little turns (intentional or not) makes rereading it so much more engaging, even when you know what's happening like the back of your hand. I don't often reread books in general - oo many books, so little time and all - but I don't even hesitate with Derek, because I know I'll have just as much fun as the first time, and probably find new stuff that I never noticed before while I'm at it.

Seeing all the characters at this early point in the story makes me respect them even more. The development from now to the end of the series is staggering, but we still start with solid characters at the beginning. Something I've been thinking about with this series is the way in which it portrays different kinds of intelligence and how that really isn't something you see that much. You tend to get stories that have the 'book smart' person but that ends up being pretty much the only form of intelligence around. In Skulduggery, there are definitely people who are book smart, but Bliss has strategic intelligence, Tanith is people smart, Valkyrie learns on her feet so fast, and Skulduggery... let's not fuel his ego.

Valkyrie, especially, is such a brilliant character, and for more than seeing a female protagonist with intelligence and physical strength. While I hesitate to call this a children's series (especially towards the end), I did read these books when I was a lot younger, and while rereading Playing with Fire it struck me who grateful I am for a character like Val. Because Valkyrie is uncertain and scared in this book. She's the protagonist, she's brave at times, and she's kick ass and awesome. But she's a thirteen year old kid who doesn't know entirely what she's doing; she hasn't mastered her magic yet and she's being put into a lot of really dangerous situations in which she's always surrounded by adults. She gets hurt, and she gets scared in a realistic way that you would in those situations. But she carries on anyway and deals with the fallout as she goes. I respect Derek so much for taking his time to build her up as a person over this huge series because it's so valuable for such a young protagonist to honestly be scared and inexperienced in a story, but improve as they grow up. Like myself, a lot of kids have and do read this series, and I don't think I've seen a character grow and develop and become stronger just through growing up like I have with Valkyrie, and that's such a great thing to show younger people.

While I can't say it's my favourite book in the series anymore, rereading Playing with Fire properly (I'm skim read all of the books about twenty times each) was almost a different experience to when it first came out. It really reminds you how far everyone has come and how dark things really get. But, at the same time, this book isn't trivial. Yeah, it's not the gritty, edgy finale that we end up at, but it's still complex and clever and awesome. This series has something in it for everyone, and even now I'm finding new aspects I hadn't noticed before. Reading Skulduggery Pleasant feels like coming home.

TheDaisyDeer's Best Books of 2016

2016 has been an interesting year for me in reading. When I look back on the year it's a bit disappointing that there aren't any stand-out books for me (if you've been around for a while you might notice that I don't have a 'best overall novel' this year).

But at the same time when I go back to my blog or GoodReads and see everything together, it appears that actually that I've had a very good reading year: I read more books this year than last, I read a wider variety and began looking at things like poetry and graphic novels, I had my first full year working with NetGalley and became a reviewer for Unbound Publishers as well.

And there have definitely been stories I have fallen in love with too. Quite uncharacteristically of me, I've shed a few emotional tears over books in 2016, and I've nearly thrown my kindle across the room in frustration at how stupid some novels are.

Overall, though there might not be one particular book that I instantly remember as being the best thing I read in 2016, there are a whole host of novels that I loved and are more than worthy to be gracing bookshelves everywhere. Here are the best books that I read (but were not necessarily released) in 2016:

Novel with the Best Story read in 2016:

Empire of Storms

Sarah J. Maas

Read my review of Empire of Storms here!

Novel with the Best Writing read in 2016:

A Monster Calls

Patrick Ness

Read my review of A Monster Calls here!

Novel with the Best Entertainment read in 2016:

This Savage Song

V.E. Schwab

Read my review of This Savage Song here!

Best New Discovery read in 2016:

The Penelopiad

Margaret Atwood

Read my review of The Penelopiad here!

Best Fantasy Novel read in 2016:

A Gathering of Shadows

V.E. Schwab

Read my review of A Gathering of Shadows here!

Best Sci-Fi Novel read in 2016:

Sleeping Giants

Sylvain Neuvel

Read my review of Sleeping Giants here!

Best Dystopian Novel read in 2016:

Wolf by Wolf

Ryan Graudin

Read my review of Wolf by Wolf here!

Best Historical Novel read in 2016:

Salt to the Sea

Ruta Sepetys

Read my review of Salt to the Sea here!

Best Contemporary Novel read in 2016:

The Dreamers

Gilbert Adair

Read my review of The Dreamers here!

Best Romantic Novel read in 2016:

The Winner's Kiss

Marie Rutkoski

Read my review of The Winner's Kiss here!

Best Classic Novel read in 2016:

The Burial at Thebes (Antigone)

Sophocles, translated by Seamus Heaney

Read my summary of The Burial at Thebes here!

Best Mystery/Thriller Novel read in 2016:

Crooked Kingdom

Leigh Bardugo

Read my review of Crooked Kingdom here!

Best Graphic Novel read in 2016:

Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi

Read my summary of Persepolis here!

Best Poetry Collection read in 2016:

Give Me a God I Can Relate To

Blythe Baird

Read my summary of Give Me a God I Can Relate To here!

Best Play read in 2016:

Peter and Alice

John Logan

Read my summary of Peter and Alice here!

Best Review Copy [not otherwise mentioned] read in 2016:

Falling Awake
provided by NetGalley & Vintage

Alice Oswald

Read my summary of Falling Awake here!

Image Sources:
Empire of Storms - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29559052-empire-of-storms
A Monster Calls - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17262384-a-monster-calls
This Savage Song - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28696452-this-savage-song
The Penelopiad - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/561371.The_Penelopiad
A Gathering of Shadows - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26236443-a-gathering-of-shadows
Sleeping Giants - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28587880-sleeping-giants
Wolf by Wolf- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27433569-wolf-by-wolf
Salt to the Sea - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28930418-salt-to-the-sea
The Dreamers - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/624641.The_Dreamers
The Winner's Kiss - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28587801-the-winner-s-kiss
The Burial at Thebes - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/839731.The_Burial_at_Thebes
Crooked Kingdom - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28933383-crooked-kingdom
Persepolis - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3106983-persepolis
Give Me a God I Can Relate To - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27803255-give-me-a-god-i-can-relate-to
Peter and Alice - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17347724-peter-and-alice
Falling Awake - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30840109-falling-awake

Crystal Storm

Book Title: Crystal Storm

Author: Morgan Rhodes
Series: Falling Kingdoms #5

Date Started: December 26th 2016

Date Completed: December 15th 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Three stars

Review:

As the fifth instalment of the Falling Kingdoms series, things are started to pull together. The characters are gravitating towards each other and everyone's endgames are starting to be revealed. But while Crystal Storm jumped the story forward, for me it stumbled back in terms of character development and relationships.

This book was quite predictable, but then again I've never read the Falling Kingdoms series for its plotline, I've always been much more interested in its characters. But it'd be nice to have a few little twists here and there like the previous books. In fact a lot of what didn't work for me in Crystal Storm is to do with the standards the series has set itself so far, so I can't be too harsh; Gathering Shadows and Frozen Tides especially were always going to be a tough act to follow. But where the rest of the series has felt well done with a few little errors slipping through, Crystal Storm felt like there was a huge rush to get the book done so a lot of things were left to slide in. There's an awful lot of telling instead of showing in this book, and when there's so many characters we know so well to interact with one another this really shouldn't be the case, especially when Rhodes has be able to imply things without directly telling us before.

Another little thing I want to mention was the way that abuse was dealt with. On the surface, there's a great, strong picture given about how wrong it is. But saying 'I'd never let anyone raise a hand to me, I'm too strong' and leaving it at that doesn't give a good representation of how other people's actions supposedly dictate your strength or weakness. How other people act say things about them, not you. I'm very sure this wasn't the message that was intended, but it troubles me that it only half dealt with the issue. I find this a bit in the feminist side of the story as well: everyone's very quick to say that the women are as strong as men, but are also very quick to insult men for being men, and are then happy submit to masculinity. As a whole, these aren't huge, glaring problems because it the vast scheme of things it works in the story and supports the characters and their values, but it's still a little detail that I think gets out of hand in a lot of fiction quickly if its not addressed.

What frustrated me the most about this book was that there's so many stupid pieces of dialogue, or silly predictable plot twists, or even tiny little actions that are so cliched and out of place just for the sake of having a 'funny' response or a forced interaction between characters. Don't get me wrong, these little things definitely happened in the previous books but they weren't every other page. In Crystal Storm it felt like Rhodes was doing whatever felt the most dramatic regardless of the continuity she'd painstakingly built up over the series. She sacrifices her own story for sounds cool and I just think it's a shame. In this book especially, the instances of this became much bigger plot holes and empty logic just to get into tense situations or play with our heart strings. But unfortunately it brought me so out of the story I wasn't getting that emotional response anymore.

While everyone's paths have crossed, and we're building up to the ending from here on out, Crystal Storm honestly felt... stagnant. Though the story did progress, we didn't actually move that far over the whole book - you can count the locations on one hand - and events didn't have the weight to it like in the previous books. In all fairness, some things had to be cleared up before we get into the final chapters of the series, but perhaps it was a bad, bad idea to bring everyone together so soon then. When I saw everyone ending up in the same place, I immediately thought that this is it, things are really going to speed up now. Instead, I'm still waiting for that final catalyst to go off as everything goes to hell.

I've mentioned that I felt Crystal Storm took a stumble backwards in terms of characters for this book; the most obvious example of this being that I don't think the characters were really themselves. I sympathise with Rhodes at having to write so many characters that we've grown to know so well in the same place at the same time (again, was that sensible?), but in favour or creating some honestly unnecessary dramatic tension we have characters acting like people they're not. And the consequence of this was that they're losing their lovability; I'm finding it harder and harder to look at them as real people. In fact, in the few days it's taken me to get to writing this review I completely forgot that we lost some people in this book. That's not a good sign.

This series follows multiple narratives, but it's a lie to say that it's not the Cleo and Magnus show. Unusually, this is something that's developed as the readers have made clear their preferences and it's really nice to see that Rhodes is giving us more of them as a result. I, personally, love both Cleo and Magnus - on their own and together. However, some of their relationship dramas in this book were just for the hell of it, let's be honest. (Slight spoilers: there's no reason to 'curse' Cleo past the sexual tension; there's no logic behind them keeping their relationship a secret; there's no point in suggesting a love triangle with Jonas other than to have the angsty arguments). I have no problems with romance being included - hell, Cleo and Magnus is a couple that I definitely indulge in - but because I like them as characters so much I want it to feel genuine, not cliche tension to tease your readers.

Crystal Storm was a genuinely enjoyable read but it's not the standard I expect from Rhodes these days. A long series where hype grows is a hard thing to keep up and I commend her for where the books are going, but this particular instalment was a bit of a let down when so much of it was powered with cliches that we know Rhodes has the ability to avoid.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29589436-crystal-storm

White as Snow

Book Title: White as Snow

Author: Tanith Lee

Date Started: November 26th 2016

Date Completed: December 12th 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Historical
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three stars

Review:

Hearing that White as Snow was inspired by a blend of fairytale and Greek mythology was enough for me to pick it up and these elements were definitely the highlights for me, but unfortunately the rest didn’t hold up. I don’t want to say the book doesn’t have other merits - it definitely does - but things were so slow it was hard to keep my enthusiasm up.

Finally, I have found a retelling of a fairytale that actually keeps the magic of the original. I have nothing against modern or other unexpected twists in retellings, but reading stories I’m very passionate about get ruined because the writer doesn’t understand the atmosphere and point of fairytales is not something I particularly enjoy. You can tell that Lee understands fairytales, and definitely favours the darker originals in her work. I’ve been looking for something exactly like this for a very long time, it’s just such a shame the pacing wasn’t up to scratch to keep me involved; from the writing-side of it, I loved it. But I couldn’t keep myself engaged with the story and characters.

Likewise, extensive world building is something I really respect and value, especially when it’s elaborating and developing a pre-existing idea, but White as Snow gets very slow very quickly. The main storyline doesn’t even start until halfway through the book because there’s so much time given to setting up characters. Some of this works, the rest is just unnecessary and frankly boring.

If you ever needed a book detailing the cruelty to women in medieval times then this is more than enough. While I’m glad it included some things, at times it was quite sickening to actually read. It’s important that we show sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse etc, but I struggled to keep coming back to the book when I knew there was going to be more and not a lot of redemption in response.

For arguably such a small novel, there are an awful lot of elements and little storylines introduced throughout that are then left behind not long after. The story spans such a huge time period that it’s understandable that elements are no longer relevant to the characters, but for a reader it became harder to latch onto a story that left behind stories you wanted to explore and placed them with new and unfamiliar ones. I personally really liked the wood folk, for example, and would’ve liked to see them carried on for a little longer, but they fade out at the halfway point and are never really mentioned again. A lot of the reason I found it hard to enjoy this book was due to the almost disjointed nature of the plot line.

With all good retellings, White as Snow has a twist on the original; we don’t only follow Coira (‘snow white’), but also her mother Arpazia (or the ‘wicked queen’). Needless to say, Arpazia has more than enough exposition to explain her well-known evilness and I honestly enjoyed her story more than Coira’s. But - and there’s a big but - sharing the protagonist space between both Arpazia and Coira made it very hard for me to find a place to read from: I feel like we were jumping between the women but not really exploring either of them that well. Pacing got complicated later in the book when both their stories were going on and felt like it dragged even more as a consequence. Additionally, both Arpazia and Coira are distant, detached characters - understandably - but it makes it hard to latch onto their narratives when it doesn’t feel like they’re really in them either.

I loved the sound of White as Snow, and I did like what I read but every time I put it down I found it hard to think of reasons to pick it back up. The story, while vivid and mystical, was slow the point of dragging, and the characters so far removed due to their circumstances that they were hard to engage with. The more I read, the lower the rating went in my head and while I loved this book to begin with, sadly it wasn’t the most enjoyable thing for the all 300 pages.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/362592.White_as_Snow

Every Mountain Made Low

Book Title: Every Mountain Made Low

Author: Alex White

Date Started: November 11th 2016

Date Completed: November 25th 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Dystopian, Thriller
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

Every Mountain Made Low was, for the most part, very enjoyable. It's only really just occurring to me how strange that title is; there's no clear link to the story, and the general atmosphere it suggests doesn't suit this book. Nonetheless, White had an engaging premise, a great protagonist and executed his story very well in places - but overall, I can't help feeling that this novel didn't reach its full potential, both in storyline and style. Towards the end, I got the feeling that a word count was trying to be met, rather than the tide of the story naturally taking White along to the end.

White's writing style was generally unremarkable, but concise enough to leave the reader open to engage with the storyline. I often struggle to find something to talk about when there's nothing blatant to praise or criticise in the style of prose, but actually the fact that I was able to fall so easily into the story White was trying to tell is a huge strength of the book in itself.

Every Mountain Made Low has a pretty standard crime-based storyline, but with an added twist of ghosts. When I first read the description of this book on NetGalley, that was certainly something that stuck out to me. In the end, it ended up being less of a key concept and more of a little flavour to the action scenes - when I mentioned that this book didn't reach its full potential, this was definitely one of the things that could've been utilised better. The whole flow of White's ideas could've improved from a little more work, but there was a solid enough world holding things together that it was still enjoyable.

When I began this book my immediate thought was 'five stars, I love it.' From there on certain things happened that I wasn't so happy with, and then a really good part came up again and I was continually switching between five and four stars (and sometimes three, I'll be honest). I was still pretty undecided three-quarters in as to how to rate this book, but then the downward spiral started to come undone. The biggest weakness of this book is that it loses its steam towards the ends: where the beginning had been overall quite slow in worldbuilding, character development and events, the end suddenly had so much condensed into a much smaller space. Normally this wouldn't have torn down a book so much for me, but the momentum of the initial engagement had just run out by that time. Suddenly characters felt very inconsistent past Loxley and there were huge jumps in relationship dynamics in favour of getting to the end of the plot. The conclusion definitely dragged on longer than we needed for how quickly things felt like they were wrapped up. I felt like I'd missed two or three chapters right in the middle of the book where everything should've been properly transitioned into the approach of the climax. Instead, we go from the 'everyday' - however horrible and strange that is for Loxley - into the concluding sequences, when really we needed just a little bit more establishing of where we were headed.

If we're talking about the characters in this book, Loxley is really all the focus you have. Don't get me wrong, there's a whole host of various different people, but no one is really given that much attention in terms of development as our protagonist is. Understandably, I'll admit, because Loxley is a brilliant portrayal of a strong character with a learning disability - something I've come across maybe twice before in my many years of reading. As someone who doesn't know that much about learning disabilities (and so doesn't want to assume Loxley has autism as opposed to another learning disability), the narration did a really good job of showing how Loxley reacts to things is perfectly understandable from her perspective, but points out where other people just don't understand her. Manipulation and general ignorance towards her disability were also shown pretty well, I think, and White intertwined it all quite naturally within the primarily crime-based storyline.

A sort of dystopian meets crime thriller ghost story, Every Mountain Made Low is a very interesting addition to bookshelves. I haven't seen such unflinching diversity for a while, and it was so nice to read about characters who aren't in the mainstream but don't even really ponder on the fact that they aren't. Though things drifted off towards the end for me, I enjoyed reading it for the most part and think the adult crime genre will welcome it happily.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29430524-every-mountain-made-low

Versailles

Book Title: Versailles

Author: Yannick Hill

Date Started: October 29th 2016

Date Completed: November 9th 2016

Genres: Sci-Fi, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to Unbound Publishers for this copy for review ◆

Versailles was an interesting idea and something I hadn't seen before in the Young Adult genre but it wasn't pulled off as well I would have liked. There were a lot of things I liked about this book, but they were far and few in between and as a whole piece, it couldn't hold my attention. I got about half way through, but unfortunately I just had to make the decision to leave it there because I wasn't giving it much attention anymore because it just left me unengaged.

When I started this book I was pleasantly surprised by how different it felt. The first thing that I noticed was how like a script it read - and in a good way. I can see how some people might find it a bit disjointing, but for a film geek like me, it was strangely refreshing. Not least in the way that it hid some of the very direct storytelling the Hill uses; I hate it when authors tell the reader things in a situation or about a character instead of showing them through the action, but it wasn't so frustrating in this style. Unfortunately, it isn't really enough to hold up a story that doesn't feel like it's progressing even at the halfway point.

The story about the family inside the digital fortress of Versailles was miles ahead of the exploration of technology's influence on our culture. This isn't even that much of an insight into what constant, inescapable media could do to a family in a fictional world, it's about this particular family. Perhaps if the message around technology wasn't so confused it might be different, but what I read in the first half of the novel showed the evilness of humans to be a far greater threat than the technology they used to stay in power. Honestly, as far as I could tell the technology wasn't that damaging at all (it's even a very clear and effective escape for River's problematic situation), but it's in fact the father who's ruining these people's lives - a father who is painted as a one-sided psychopath, I might add.

Which moves me onto my other issue that made it had for me to stay engaged and immersed in the story: I didn't know what I was supposed to take seriously. There's a lot of abstract imagery in Versailles, and that caught my attention at first, but then there's some things that I don't know if they're actually there in this futuristic technological dystopia, or if they're a metaphor. When you combine that with some honestly ridiculous attempts to create teenage memes or whatever you want to call it, you cross a line between what can be understood in the suspension-of-belief that fiction creates, and what's just silly. I don't know what parts of Versailles were supposed to be taken seriously and what was intended to be satirical, and I think that comes from putting some character into prose.

I think the biggest problem for me was that the characters were just dislikeable. Now, I appreciate they're all supposed to be brainwashed at the start (presumably it develops a little more in the second half of the book, but I didn't see huge leaps in the first portion), but it's exaggerated to the point where I didn't like them, and I wasn't rooting for them or anything they did. And the problem was then that you're supposed to connect to these people being smothered in this futuristic digital palace, but I didn't because they felt so alien and emotionless to the point where it wasn't enjoyable to read about them. Even Missy, who arguably leads the story through her rebellious act of running away from both her home and all social media, doesn't feel like she actually believes in what she's doing. They're characters going through the motions of a narrative without the heart to come to life.

For an exploration into the influence of technology for a Young Adult audience, Versailles is an interesting new addition to what's available. Personally, it couldn't decide on what it was enough to be able to get me on board, but there are definitely some aspects which I was pleasantly surprised to read about. It's not quite contemporary but features family dynamics, not quite sci-fi but is definitely very futuristic, not quite adventure but has road-trip aspects to it - the list goes on. I can't say I've seen anything exactly like it on the market so if it sounds intriguing maybe it'll be that something new for you.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27993245-versailles