Review of 'Our Endless Numbered Days' by Claire Fuller

 

I *think* this might be the first 1 star book I've read all year; I just could not get on board with it. I thought for the most part that the book would be a three star read (fairly interesting, not offensive, but not something I enjoyed that much), but the ending for me totally took the book into a nosedive.

Our Endless Numbered Days is about eight year old Peggy whose father is a survivalist. He's obsessed with working out how they'd survive in a post apocalyptic state. When Peggy's mum goes away, her dad takes Peggy on a trip. She doesn't know it yet, but things are going to be very different from now on. He takes Peggy from their home in London to live in a hut in a remote European forest. They learn to hunt and forage for food, living completely off the land. It's hard, and when winter approaches things become treacherous. But when her father tells her everyone she knows is dead because beyond the forest the world has collapsed, Peggy realises she's going to have to get used to life in the wilderness. 

The book is a dark read right from the start: Peggy's dad constantly makes her practice their survival skills at home, without her really wanting to, and when he lies to her about what's really happening with their trek through Europe, she doesn't fully understand what's going on. As the book is told from a child's perspective you only understand slightly more than Peggy, and it hits home about how scary such a drastic change in living is. However, things get a bit more convoluted as Peggy is suffering from PTSD, which makes her recollection of all the events completely skewed, and the reader only finds this out at the end. Don't get me wrong, I love a good twist but *and this is a MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT*, not when it involved incest?

Whilst in the wood, Peggy meets a man also living out there and falls in love with him. Their relationship is completely romanticised throughout, and was fairly uncomfortable as you read the book, as you're aware he's definitely an adult whilst she's a teen at this point. Right at the end of the book it's revealed that not only is this man her father, but she's pregnant with his child. The last line of the book is 'I closed my eyes and remembered the warm summer sun turning the tips of Reuben's hair orange'; Reuben's the name of the alter ego she gives her father. Not only is this bit romantic, but when they have sex the author goes to great length to describe the girl's orgasms and pleasure in it. 

I totally understand that there are really awful people out there and child abuse happens, and that PTSD can massively impact your memories, but it was making it seem like a love story, rather than a story of abuse that made me want to throw the book in the bin. The story also dragged a lot in parts, and I was just desperate to finish it so I could read something better. The author went to really great lengths to endlessly describe their live in the hut, and it felt like the incest story slotted in at the end was there as a desperate attempt to make the book retrospectively more interesting. I wouldn't recommend reading it.

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Review of 'Girl, Woman, Other' by Bernardine Evaristo

 

I downloaded this on my kindle what feels like forever ago now, after it co-won (still annoyed about that) the Booker prize last year. I'm not a big fan of short stories, but the way that these interconnected and the vibrancy of the characters in such a small amount of words made this a really great read.

Girl, Woman, Other follows the story of 12 people, mostly women, Black and British. Each story encapsulates important parts of that person's life: there's a struggling mother-daughter relationship (from both the mother and daughter's points of view), a move to no longer recognising your assigned at birth gender, a discovery of what it means to be queer for one person, a forceful coming to terms with your own prejudice, older people, younger people, richer and poorer, immigrants and emigrants. 

The writing was almost poetic: it doesn't have a standard paragraph narrative structure, but flows with the story, and very few full stops. It helped you to get swept up in the speech and dynamics of the characters' stories. The characters are all connected to at least one, and more often many, other characters in the book in a whole host of different ways, which made the text as a whole more coherent. With every new story I was looking out for links to the characters I'd already come to know and love, and each new link brought a new perspective on a character I already thought I'd figured out.

This really is an excellent book, and I only wish it would have won the Booker Prize alone. I gave this five stars and would recommend for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, 'Queenie' and those looking for more perspectives in fiction on the broad experiences that can make up what it's like to be Black and British.

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Review of 'Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race' by Reni Eddo-Lodge

 

I am very very rarely a non-fiction reader, but as the BLM protests emerged earlier this year I really felt the need to step up and attempt to educate myself more whilst supporting Black writers. I remember when the book was first released a few years ago, and the outrage it provoked from a whole sector of white people about it being 'racist' and intentionally divisive. But that's absolutely not the case, and it's such an important book to read. I've lent this to a friend, and will be lending it to anyone I know who wants to read it: the author's said she doesn't like profiting from Black tragedy and would much rather the book is shared than she gets a massive boost in sales every time a murder occurs that's focused on by the media.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is a really great place to start in delving into non-fiction about specifically anti-Black racism in the UK. It covers a broad range of issues we've all seen discussed more than ever in the news over the past few months. The author breaks down the difference between systematic and systemic racism, and what they both mean; why white people need to stand up and challenge their white friends, co-workers etc; the impact and importance of the Stephen Lawrence case; the difference between racism in the UK and the US; discrimination (jobs, housing etc); racism intersecting with feminism and classism, and other equally important topics. 

The book is neither very long, nor is the language convoluted: it's accessible, and a manageable read if you're not used to non-fiction. Reni Eddo-Lodge is an incredible writer, and she builds her arguments throughout the book on clear evidence to reach direct conclusions that are easy to follow (and make complete sense). I really would recommend this for anyone, particularly if you're in the UK, wanting to understand more about the nuances of race and racism in this country, and what really needs to change. 

It's a completely eye-opening read that I feel everyone needs to read. It should be in every school and library and I hope one day will be so that everyone has the opportunity to educate themselves. 

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Review of 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' by Sarah J Maas

 

I mean ... where do I even start with this? I'm totally late on the train with reading Sarah J Maas' books. After devouring YA fantasy as much as possible when I was a teen, I fell out of touch with it until last year when I remembered how much I enjoyed reading fantasy. And this series? I've now read the first three and all I've done since starting this is rave to anyone who will listen about this new obsession. I now totally understand why everyone seems to constantly be talking about them online. 

A Court of Thorns and Roses is a bit of a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a twist. Feyre's struggling to help keep her two sisters fed as her father can't work after his leg was damaged. When she kills the biggest wolf she's ever seen she can't believe her luck ... until she finds out it's fae. Tamlin, a fae High Lord storms into their house as a beast, demanding to know who killed the wolf: he takes Feyre as punsishment across the Wall, back to fae lands to live out the rest of her life there. At first, Feyre is determined to hate her surroundings and captors, but as time goes on, will she change her mind?

I absolutely devoured this. One thing Sarah J Maas is really excellent at is world building, and I love a book that has good descriptions in it. The fae world has seven courts: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Day, Night and Dawn. The majority of ACOTAR takes place in the Spring court and it sounds like the most beautiful place. Don't get me wrong though, the book isn't all heavy description, but instead has steamy romance, lots of dramatic action and characters that you would die for and also want to kill. 

All the hype I've ever heard about how great Sarah J Maas' writing is is really to be believed: I want to read every book she's ever written, and the series only gets better from here! I've given this five stars and would recommend for fans of YA fantasy, His Dark Materials, the Chaos Walking Trilogy, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.

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Review of 'The God of Small Things' by Arundhati Roy

I don't read a lot of literary fiction, so The God of Small Things is a little outside of my comfort zone, but I'm glad I read it. This year I'm trying to read more books in translation, and more books that aren't written by English authors and this was a good one to go for. Winner of the 1997 Booker Prize, there has been a lot of critical acclaim for this over the 20 plus years since publication.

Set in Kerala in south India, The God of Small Things moves back and forwards in time telling the story of how lives can be completely disrupted and derailed with a single small action. Rahel and Esthappen are twins who are separated when some disastrous event occurs that is hinted at throughout most of the book before we finally understand what happens towards the end. The book is partly told from Rahel's perspective, both in the lead up to the incident, and roughly 25 years later when the twins are finally reunited. The twins' family is not a perfect one, and they are battling with the idea of love, familial ties, the caste system they form a part of and separation throughout the book.

The book really focuses on class relations in India during the period the book is set in and the politics and culture surrounding these through the lens of this family. Class status affects everything that happens: it leads to secrets, forbidden actions, differences in speech and approach to different people. I felt that keeping the reason for the twins' separation a secret until late on in the book added a bit more tension that the book really needed.

I am going to add a trigger warning for this one for child sexual assault. The scene was a really poignant moment in the book - another small action by Esthappen in leaving the cinema when he did leading to a bigger even that has a massive impact on his life. It's one of the few books I've read that's dealt with sexual assault against a male child and how the dynamics and impact of that can be slightly different than for a female child. It was quite graphic, so I felt this really needed a big trigger warning.

I gave this four stars and would recommend it if you enjoyed The Kite Runner as they're a little similar in showing the impacts small decisions can have on your entire life as well as other peoples'.

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Review of 'The Lola Quartet' by Emily St John Mandel

I read 'Station Eleven' a few years ago and LOVED it - I couldn't understand why I'd never heard anyone talk about Emily St John Mandel's work before and was completely enthralled. However, it is a bit end-of-civilization-due-to-a-virus dystopian-y, so I wouldn't recommend reading it right now unless you're feeling pretty secure with pandemic panic. The Lola Quartet is the second book I've bought by the author and whilst I sort of enjoyed it, I don't feel it came even close to Station Eleven.

Written on a dual timeline, this book follows Gavin Saseki who, ten years after high school ended, suddenly finds himself not only separated from his wife, but curious about what happened to his high school girlfriend, who left without much of a goodbye. Disgraced in his career, he moves back to his home town with his sister to try and start afresh, but when she sees a child that she thinks might be the source of all those rumours back in the day about Gavin's girlfriend being pregnant, he finds himself ensconced in the past. Ten years in the past, we follow Anna, the old girlfriend; a teen mum who stole money from a drug dealer and is forced to go on the run. 

I liked the idea of this story (I'm always up for a dramatic YA read), but I struggled to get to grips with this one. I found that I couldn't really connect with any of the characters, which made the drama seem less intense. I did find that as the book went on I became quite invested in the mystery and really wanted to know what Anna was doing, whether her daughter was Gavin's, and how he was going to get his life back on track, but it felt dragged out even for a short novel. 

I gave this book 3 stars because I was interested in the story line, but the characters weren't well-developed enough for me.

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Review of 'The Collaborator' by Mirza Waheed

 

There's so much history from around the world that I'm entirely clueless about, and the tensions in the 1990s at the India-Pakistan border definitely fall into that category. I love to read books that teach me something about history, and this really did, though I could do with a bit of a deep dive into exactly what created the tensions and how they were played out more broadly.

The Collaborator is set in Kashmir, along the India-Pakistan border. Our main character is a teen who is working with the Indian army who occupy Kashmir. He navigates the wasteland of the landscape he grew up in, collecting what possessions he can from the bodies that litter it, and hating both himself and his boss as he does so. His closest school friends have crossed the border to train as freedom fighters, and he struggles to know why they excluded him from this plan, and whether they've done the right thing.

The author tells the story of what happened to the people of Kashmir in devastating prose. The reader sees the impact of the conflict and occupation first on the militants who are fighting the occupation and lie dead, but then through the eyes of a mother watching her son be taken away, the women who have been raped and cannot feed their children as their food has been seized, the communities of elders who are disrespected and abused. It's a tough read, but a necessary one to help understand this part of history.

I found the book very emotive and well written. It takes you through the loss of innocence both of a teenage boy and an entire village; both are forced to engage in and watch military brutality. I found the book a little slow at times, which is why I gave it 4 stars, but the images of the landscape that the narrator had to deal with feel like something that will stick with me for a long time.

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