Review of 'A Quiet Kind of Thunder' by Sara Barnard

I read Beautiful Broken Things last year and it was a full on breath of fresh air for me. I WISH I'd had more authors when I was a teen that wrote about friendship and not just romance. BBT was the book that really made me fall in love with Sara Barnard's writing and now I just want to read all of her novels, especially Fierce Fragile Hearts, set in the same world as BBT.

When Rhys joins Steffi's school she's asked to show him the ropes, with a special nod to their shared skill: sign language. Rhys is deaf, and Steffi has selective mutism which has meant that she's learnt to use sign language to express herself as she's gotten older. The book is a YA love story (no spoilers - this kicks in pretty early on), about anxiety and disability and how you can navigate these as a teen. 

I really enjoyed this as a nice quick comfort read. I wouldn't say it's as good as BBT, but the insight into the insecurities and challenges you face as a teen absolutely hit the nail on the head. The plot is quite clear from the start, and there's the usual get together, someone cocks up, fall apart and get back together again narrative, but it's one I love.

I'm giving this 4 out of 5 stars and would recommend it if you like YA romance. It'd be a good book for getting you out of a reading slump - I was muttering 'just one more chapter' under my breath for roughly half the book!

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Review of 'A Clash of Kings' by George R R Martin

This year I went through a *bit* of a Game of Thrones reading phase, but WOW they are exhausting aren't they?! This one came in at almost 900 pages, and whilst the first 300 pages (aka pretty much an ENTIRE NORMAL BOOK) set all the different scenes of action, the rest of the book was very intense and I really did enjoy it.

The book is told from 9 main characters' perspectives (Arya, Bran, Sansa, Catelyn, Daenerys, Jon, Tyrion, Davos, Theon), with an extra prologue from a tenth point of view, and I've broken the plot down into much more detail on my other blog here. It's the second and longest (in a single volume) book in the series. 

Joffrey, Renly and Stannis Baratheon all believe they have a claim to the Iron Throne after Robert Baratheon's death. With Robb Stark having proclaimed himself King of the North and Balon Greyjoy raising fights as a self-proclaimed king too, this time is declared the War of the Five Kings. 

Tensions are evidently high, and Stannis calls on witchcraft through the Red Lady to help him secure his foothold as a contender for the throne. Meanwhile, the Lannisters are still looking for a wedding with a Stark to tie the families together in the hope that at least one of them will be powerful by the end of the war.

The book culminates in the Battle of the Blackwater at King's Landing. It's fiery and deadly and changes everything for the warring factions.

This is my favourite book from the series that I've read so far. Whilst it was a VERY long read, it did mean that all of the action-packed scenes were set up with lots of details beforehand that really came together and made everything a lot more powerful. It's hard to summarise a 900 page book without going into masses of detail, but I really think this is where some of the characters really started to come to life. Sansa finally becomes tolerable, Bran becomes less tolerable but more himself, and Tyrion becomes even more likeable.

If you're a fan of the show, or sci-fi fantasy in general, then this really is a great read.

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