Review of "The Deathsniffer's Assistant" by Kate McIntyre

I haven't read a fantasy novel in YEARS, and this was definitely a good'un to return to the genre with. The trick with fantasy novels is to make them believable, and I think if the author doubts themself, or the story they are writing in it's potential veracity, then the story is lost to the world of poor quality fantasy novels (of which there are many). However, MycIntyre makes it possible for readers to utterly immerse themselves in the world of The Deathsniffer's Assistant with her excellent prose and manifold plot streams. If you've ever read any of Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, I would say that this is probably a read for you. Mixing darkness with love, honour and a little bit of social scheming, The Deathsniffer's Assistant is definitely going on my list as a 2015 must-read.

Chris didn't choose to be his younger sister's guardian, but after the incident at the Floating Castle left them orphaned he had no choice. Now, a few years on the family inheritance is starting to run dry and Chris must find a job to support himself and Rosemary. However, when he was categorized, as all young men and women are, he was designated to become a simple wordweaver: something that is hardly highly regarded, or highly paid for that matter. The only job he can get is with a Deathsniffer. Although Truthsniffers in their own right are a decent sort of folk, one that specialises in death, and more so, proclaims that they are a Deathsniffer is bound to be a little ... repellant. But, faced with either working for the Deathsniffer or ending up in abject poverty, Chris must join forces with this individual and seek the murderer of a member of the old blood: Duke Val Darens. 

However, perhaps there are darker forces at work even than the person who so brutally killed the Duke and defaced his dead body. Rosemary's secret wizardly binding skills have been kept hidden for years by Chris, but with the creatures starting to break loose from their binds, causing damage and turmoil everywhere, perhaps it will be harder to keep her safe than he'd ever thought ...

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

The last few books I've read have been a bit disappointing, so I was overjoyed when I started this. The quality of writing and content was absolutely astounding. Being a bit of a grammar nerd, usually I come across what I call "clumpy" sentences, or phrases that just sound wrong and make me cringe a little, but I found reading this utterly smooth and joyful. The message was also really important: it was all about a little girl learning how hard it was to grow up in a world so utterly biased, and how confusing it can be for a child to begin to learn the implications of race in a world where nothing is fair.

Lily needs to get away from her father T Ray. After the death of her mother (which Lily berates herself for causing), T Ray and one of the coloured fruit pickers from the farm, Rosaleen, who becomes Lily's replacement mother, are the only people Lily's got in the world. Or so she thinks. When Rosaleen goes to put her name down for a vote and is racially abused by some men she reacts aggressively, landing herself a place in the local prison. Due to the racial nature of her attack, she is beaten so badly she is sent to hospital, where Lily breaks her out of.

On the run, they go to the only other place in the world Lily can imagine: the town her mother inscribed on the back of a black Madonna - one of only three of her mother's items that Lily owns. There her and Rosaleen are kindly taken in by three coloured sisters: May, June and August. Although a little skeptical about housing a white girl at first, the sister's start to deal with the racial issues inside and outside of their home all under the guidance of their black Madonna statue. Will this idyll be a haven for Lily and Rosaleen, or will it end in tragedy?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "A Year in the Life of a Playground Mother"

I like to think that I can pick up any book and immerse myself in it's world, and this is the last one in a while that I've actually felt oddly excluded from. I'm not a mother, and don't understand the politics of the playground, so all of the jokes about the clique of playground mothers, donned the "playground mafia", etc didn't go over my head - believe me, I've met mothers who insist that their little darling is a perfect beam of sunshine - but rather simply weren't funny to me. Plus, I was bothered by the fact that this book's plot was exactly what it said on the tin, as it were: it simply went through a year in the life of a playground mother. Each chapter was a month, and each month described this mother's activities: which mothers she was friends with, who her children were friends with, and who was having an affair in the village. In short, half of the book was occupied with the narrator complaining about selfish mothers who formed cliques and sought gossip about one another, and the other half was occupied with the narrator doing exactly that.

Rachel Young moves away from the suburbs to the country in the hope of being released from the grip of a playground mafia. These are the women who inspect other children's reading levels to ensure that their own child is best of the best. BUT this village turns out to be filled with even more odd characters than her home town. From Camilla, who often forgets she has a daughter as well as a son and a multitude of coats in her wardrobe, roving-eye Rupert, Mr F.P (Frisky Pensioner), and more, Rachel's life is going to be anything but peaceful for the next year.

Have you read it? What did you think? 

Steph x

Review of "The Lie" by C. L. Taylor

2015 has been a year of thrillers for me. Not typically a genre I go for, my eyes have been opened to the intensity and mystery they ensconce. This book seemed to have been on a couple of book bloggers' creepy Halloween books to read lists, so I thought it was worth a go. However, i have to say I was largely disappointed. Have you ever read a book where it's felt like the author almost made an amazing book and it's super frustrating because they hadn't quite achieved it?! This was one of those for me: I think it needed about another 100 pages or so to explain some backstory. There were half-explanations of all of the main characters' back stories, but not enough to make them interesting or explain their actions. This is not to say that the book was without merit however, it was dark and downright scary at points. So, if you want something that will make you question every bump in the night or weird coincidence, give this a shot!

Jane, or Emma as she used to be known, just wants a normal life, and to leave her past behind her. Settled down in a new relationship (which bears its own challenges) and working in her dream job at an animal rescue centre, she thinks she's finally nailed it. That is until someone sends something to her addressed to her old name, and a mysterious message stating "Daisy is not dead" appears on the website of the animal rehabilitation centre she works at. 

Five years before, Emma and her three best friends Leanne, Al and Daisy take the trip of a lifetime to Nepal to escape the woes of their mundane post-university lives. However, once they enter a retreat up in the Nepalese mountains things go a bit haywire. Things start getting weird up there: the girls are forced to turn against one another, encouraged to have sex with the men at the retreat no strings attached, and people start to go missing ... What will Emma do when the girl she thought would have her back forever, Daisy starts to change, and leave Emma behind? Is Emma imagining the subtle threat at Ekantra Yata, or is there something a lot more sinister going on than the brochure suggested?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli

Recently I've been getting more and more interested in YA fiction, especially as it's been so long since I've read any and have done a degree in English Lit during that period! Simon vs the Homosapiens agenda really opened my eyes to ways in which the genre has transformed. Although it's only been three or four years since I've read any, Albertalli's novel opened my eyes to ways in which difficult issues are now being tackled. I don't remember ever having read a YA novel in which the protagonist, whose point of view the novel is written from was openly gay (at least to the reader!). I was incredibly pleased to see the uncomfortable issue of how and when to come out dealt with head on, without the importance of this to a young person being overlooked. All in all I think it was an incredibly interesting text, especially with the parallel plot lines between the "real" world, and Simon's online relationship with Blue. 

Simon's your typical teenager: desperate to get away from his parents' smothering questions, keen to make new friends, and more importantly, ready to start a relationship. However, Simon's recently realised that it is boys he likes, which in his mind causes a whole host of problems. Especially when you bring Blue into the equation. Blue is Simon's (or Jacques, his online alias') emailing penpal, who goes to the same school, but is keen to keep his identity a secret. The pair fall for each other over email, but like most teenagers are far too shy to bring this relationship to light. Simon begins to see potential Blues everywhere he looks, but soon other aspects of his life catch up to him. The drama play, his friends' arguments and his sister's mysterious disappearances all have him on edge and distracted. In the end, will everything turn out right?

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion

Ever wondered what makes a slightly more than obsessive scientist tick? Don Tillman, Simsion's protagonist is a leading scientist in the field of genetics, but finds that there's one thing missing from his life: a wife. In a slightly hilarious manner, Professor Don creates a questionnaire for his potential candidates, attempting to devise a manner in which dates are not social disasters, as well as hopefully finding a woman he could hope to spend his life with. I found Don's character incredibly intriguing, as you do meet people just like him (especially in the Maths department at uni!), who are just so organised and structured in a way in which I could never hope to be. My one main problem with this novel was the title. I spent the early parts of the novel waiting for someone called Rosie to appear, and the remainder of it fully aware that she was going to be central to Don's life. There was no real intrigue or suspense in terms of Don's attempts at finding love because of this, I felt.

Don Tillman is lonely. His best friend Gene has a wife as well as a whole string of girls beckoning him to their beds, whilst Don has nothing, nor has he ever had anything. He understands the importance of companionship as well as sex and for this reason he wants a wife, not just a couple more friends. The only problem is that Don is utterly incapable of understanding social situations. So, he devises his very own questionnaire, which he intends to hand to women on blind dates in order to find someone who is compatible, and ensure that the entire date is not a bust. However, when Rosie, who defies about 90% of his wifely requirements, steps into the frame, Don begins to question exactly how useful his methods of selection were ....

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x

Review of "The Letter" by Kathryn Hughes

Domestic abuse is something that we're only just finding the right discourse to talk about. For too often "victim blaming" has been present here, by means of people suggesting that the victim somewhat brings it upon themselves because they stay with the perpetrator. However, in The Letter, Hughes shows the other side of this discussion: what do you do if the person you loved isn't who you thought they were, or want them to be? Tina, the protagonist of the story suffers greatly at the hands of her domineering husband, whose alcoholism sends him into fits of paranoid rage. What the reader begins to realise is that Tina isn't simply foolish for leaving him, but terrified too. When Tina and Rick marry he begins to hit her upon occasion, but convinces her that if she didn't provoke him it wouldn't happen. As well as this, he is so apologetic and seemingly filled with love after he does it that she believes in her hopes: that he's changed, and it won't happen again. I think this is an incredibly important text for anyone to read if they've ever considered why the victim of an abuser would stay in a relationship filled with pain.

Tina just wants Rick to love her like he did before they were married. But since their marriage night he's beaten her so badly that she's ended up in hospital. She wants to escape, but how can she? She needs the man she loves, especially is she's right, and there's a little one along the way. Surely he'll become the loving man he once was now, right?

Desperate to think about something else and needing an escape from everything, Tina is intrigued when she finds a letter in the jacket a man donated to the charity shop she works from. It's from a man named Billy, dedicated to his lover Chrissie, apologising for the mistakes he's made and swearing that he will do right for her. The only problem is it has no postmark: the letter was never sent. Tina feels the need to reunite the letter with its rightful owner. This search takes Tina to places she'd never imagined, and might just have the potential to turn her life upside down ....

Have you read it? What did you think?

Steph x