Review of 'The Honeymoon' by Tina Seksis

It's been a LONG ol' time since I picked up a good thriller to read, but after being recommended this by my good friend Aimee (check out her blog here), I couldn't resist. 

The Honeymoon kick starts in the Maldives, where Jemma and her husband are honeymooning. That is, until he goes missing five days in. Unable to remember much from the night he disappeared after drinking one too many cocktails, Jemma has a whole host of dark thoughts swirling around. She knows they weren't getting along, but she couldn't have done something to him ... could she?

The holiday narrative is interrupted with chapters from the past, showing us how Jemma and her hubby got to a stage where they're in the Maldives honeymooning, but everything is a bit tense. 

I really enjoyed this one. I loved the fact that the author used this paradisaical location to subvert the norm of thrillers happening in dark and dank and dangerous places. Jemma was a character that you never could quite trust, and she made a whole lot of mistakes. It moved away from a damsel in distress idea without painting Jemma as some kind of black widow with no heart, which is worringly a fine line in most fiction. 

The big twists in this novel were epic, and definitely made it an absolute page turner. I felt like I was hunting the twist down right up until the very end, and I would definitely recommend this if you're a fan of a good thriller that isn't *too* heavy.

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Review of 'The Word for World is Forest' by Ursula K. Le Guin

Sci-fi is not a genre I delve into very often at all, but maybe I need to start switching that up because I adored this book. Or maybe I just need to start reading more books by Ursula K. Le Guin. I think I'll have to do both just to work out which one I really need to do *shrugs*.

The Word for World is Forest is a short novella, and something I could see myself reading over and over again because there was just so much crammed into this little book. It's all about humans' colonisation of the planet Athshe where they enslave the peaceful native population. The Athsheans are treated in a disgusting manner, beaten and raped and generally mistreated.

The Athsheans love their planet and treat it with respect, whilst the humans are cutting down the trees on the planet for logging. They've already destroyed Earth and haven't learnt their lesson. As the book progresses, we understand more and more about the brutality of the colonisers, and how their destruction seeps into the culture of the Athsheans.

This book carried strong notes of militarism in it as well as the negative impact of colonisation on native populations. It is reminiscent of the horror stories that have emerged over the years regarding the European settlers who descended upon the Americas. The novel is told from different perspectives both on the human side and the Athsheans. It is easy to see how the humans have been swept up in their ideals: they genuinely believe that the Athsheans are a lesser breed and that their lives are worth as little as cattle, simply wanting to wipe them out to make way for more humans. 

This novella is something that was just incredibly powerful. I think Le Guin has a powerful way with words that encapsulates so many of the wrongs that happen in our world, presenting it in a science fiction format. I loved the vastly different culture of the native Athsheans, who sing and dream and never kill one another. I would definitely recommend, especially if you're a newcomer to the genre like I am!

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Review of 'Shiny Happy Person' by Terri Cox

It's rare that I read a non-fiction book, or at least that used to be the case. I've recently finished number 5 of 2018 and that definitely holds some 'you're so far out of your comfort zone now boo' record. 

Shiny Happy Person is a book all about one woman's personal struggle with depression over many years. Her time as a teen was tough: after growing up as one-third of a set of triplets, Terri begins to find her own way through life without the back-up of her sisters. School was rife with bullying, but after spending a year abroad at uni to study languages was when Terri really found it hard to fit in to her 'shiny happy' persona.

Suddenly Terri found herself lost, a shell of her former self. It's something that became more and more apparent as she spent time with the people she loved until she reached breaking point. Everything stopped. Terri's love life had hit a wall and she was single again. With a strong support network however, she worked her way back up from the ground again.

The story is a tale of recovery and how things can get so low you need to recover. It's a story all about how mental health issues don't need to be caused by a massive trauma or specific incident, but how they grow and manifest, and are set off by a final straw. I absolutely blazed through it and found it so easy to connect with Terri. I loved that she didn't gloss over how hard recovery can be, and that she spoke about the things that helped her, and the bits that weren't so great.

It's an honest novel that tells the truth about what it's like to suffer with depression, and I would recommend giving it a read.

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Review of 'The Boleyn Inheritance' by Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory is my to-go gal for historical fiction, and at this point it feels as though reading anybody else's is a bit of a betrayal. I just adore her writing, and always find myself absolutely swept in her characters, their plotting and the absolute STATE that was English monarchy during and around the Tudor period. 

The Boleyn Inheritance is a bit of a follow-on from one of Gregory's most famous works, The Other Boleyn Girl. It's told by three different narrators: Anne of Cleves, Jane Boleyn (married to the late George Boleyn, brother to Anne) and Katherine Howard. It takes us from the aftermath of the death of Anne Boleyn up to a post-Katherine Howard court.

I've always overlooked Anne of Cleves as being a bit of a 'boring' blip in the life and times of Henry VIII. She's the one that he accused of catfishing him with a prettier-than-life portrait just FYI. Gregory brings her to life, recounting her absolute terror of being thrust into a position from which no one has escaped with their life and dignity intact.

At the same time, little Kitty Howard (who's very much not innocent to the wiles of a sexual woman) begins to turn her charm on the King. Whilst he's beginning to see himself as who he really is through the eyes of the court (an obese ageing man, with an awful odour from the festering wound on his leg), Kitty lures him into the belief that he's still as fit as he was as a young King. Men are  delightful aren't they?

Soon the court is in turmoil, as the King's favour swings away from Anne of Cleves to the young, beautiful Katherine Howard. But what will happen when the King's innocent young rose turns out to not be as blemish-free as he once imagined?

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Review of 'Severed Heads, Broken Hearts' (AKA 'The Beginning of Everything') by Robyn Schneider

Robyn Schneider is fast becoming one of my favourite authors of 2018. I stormed through this and Extraordinary Means in record time and now I think I need to read everything she's ever written? These YA books are exactly what I look for in the genre: there's romance, humour, and most importantly, a taboo/important topic is discussed throughout. In Severed Heads, Broken Hearts it's all about disability and your identity.

Ezra Faulkner had everything going for him: varsity tennis captain, hottest girlfriend in the school, and lunch at the popular table. That is until one tragic night ruins everything. After catching his girlfriend cheating on him, he storms out of a party and winds up in the ER after being hit by a drunk driver. 

Suddenly, Ezra's lost everything that he thought made him 'him'. His leg is too damaged to play tennis anymore (possibly forever), he no longer has a girlfriend, and he none of his former friends understand the trauma that he's suffering with. 

Ezra is convinced that everyone has one traumatic moment in their life that defines them. For his childhood best friend, it was catching a severed head on a theme park ride after someone stood up mid-ride. From that point on, Ezra merged into the popular group, whilst his old friend became 'the weird guy that touched a head one time'. Now however, they're back together, and Ezra begins to learn that maybe trauma can't snatch your whole identity from you.

This was such a heartwarming read, and Schneider really manages to capture the essence of what it's like to be a teen scared of rejection and disapproval and bullying. It was something that I was excited to sit down and read every time I picked it back up, and it really was hard to put down again.

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Review of 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini

I first stumbled across this book as a teen in a school library, but was advised to wait a few years until reading it. Almost a decade on, I finally took that advice and got cracking. I'm so glad I was told this, and waited until adulthood to delve in.

At it's core, The Kite Runner is a story about friendship and family. Two boys, Amir and Hassan, grow up as best friends. Amir and his Baba are well off, whilst Hassan and his father are servants in their household. They are inseparable, but Amir is always upset that his Baba likes Hassan. Hassan is everything Amir is not: sporty, brave and more like Baba that Amir could ever be. 

Kite running is what the pair most enjoy doing together. They practise every day for a massive tournament, and when they win, Amir is over the moon. Until he sees something awful happen to Hassan. And in that moment, he's pre-occupied with needing to be Baba's favourite person, not needing to be a good friend.  

Things only go downhill from there, and shortly after betraying Hassan further, Amir and his father leave Afghanistan. The power of the taliban is on the increase, and they emigrate to America as their lives are in danger.

The book speaks about the struggles of being an immigrant in a country prejudiced against you, and what it means to cling on to an identity that you're not convinced should define you. 

This is one of the best books I've read all year so far (definitely in the top three) and I would highly recommend it, especially if you want to learn more about living in Afghanistan during turbulent times.

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Review of 'Birds Art Life Death' by Kyo Maclear

It's rare that I pick up a memoir-style book, or anything that loosely rings of the word 'non-fiction' (although, are biographies ever not really fiction?). Birds Art Life Death is a book I stumbled upon and I'm so glad I did.

Kyo Maclear finds herself lost in the big wide world after the loss of her father. As she becomes a father-less daughter, she also comes across the biggest writing block of her life. Suddenly she's not who she thought she was, and she can't get back. At a point of desperation, she turns to another kind of artist, a bird watcher in the city who lets her accompany him on his twitchy trips.

The book is split up into the different seasons of the year, and, like avian migration, Kyo's path changes with each different season. She takes time out of her hectic life to sit at peace with nature, and she begins to benefit from this.

I found this book so utterly comforting that I can see myself coming back to it time and time again. I read it way back in April, when it felt like Winter might never shift, and it was a much-needed reminder that seasons change, just like people do. Nothing is static. 

Maclear has such a poetic way with words, making this a fab book to dip in and out of, without feeling as though you needed to catch up on what was going on. It made me more conscious of the world around me, and I even found myself listening out for the sound of bird calls!

I would definitely recommend this, especially for those who struggle with anxiety, and find that sometimes books can flare it up.

This will be heading up on my Depop soon, so head over there and have a look at the books I'm selling!

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