Review: Bone Quill by John and Carole E. Barrowman

Title: Bone Quill

Author: John and Carole E. Barrowman

Series: Hollow Earth #2

Genre: YA Fantasy

Summary (from Goodreads)

12-years-old twins Matt and Emily Calder are Animare: they can bring art to life and enter paintings at will. They must do everything in their power to prevent a breach in Hollow Earth: a supernatural place that holds all the demons, devils and creatures ever imagined. The Hollow Earth Society are getting closer to finding the key that will release the beasts: an ancient bone quill whose powers can be only be used by a powerful Animare. The quill has been lost for centuries, but important clues to its whereabouts lie somewhere on the island of Era Mina – as does the entrance to Hollow Earth itself. Matt and Em must find the quill and protect it through their drawings, through certain famous paintings and, ultimately, deep into the mists of time itself. But their lives in the relative safety of Auchinmurn Abbey are thrown into confusion with the arrival of a newcomer who threatens to ruin everything they have worked for. All too soon, the twins are forced to make a terrible choice: save their father, or save the world.

Review

I think I hate John Barrowman. Not only is the man a good actor, a good singer, charismatic and attractive and got paid to kiss Billy Piper and Christopher Ecclestone, he’s now co-authored really good books with his sister. Books that show a fine appreciation of art, just to add to the general level of culture and talent being exuded here.

Sigh.

Bone Quill picks up where Hollow Earth left off, and it’s another great, fast paced fantasy adventure which - sickeningly – I really enjoyed.

I love the characters, particularly Matt, Em and Zach. Matt’s temper and restlessness is something I think a lot of young people will relate to, male or female, and his helplessness in the face of his mother’s disappearance just makes you want to take him under your wing and give him a cuddle. I loved how he and Em played off each other, and how Zach –  at once a friend to Matt, but also a caretaker of Em – adds to the dynamic. I also loved that Zach is deaf – I think it’s wonderful to have characters with disabilities at the centre of an action story, and at the centre of any story, to be honest – we don’t see enough of it.

I enjoyed Bone Quill more than Hollow Earth, mostly because the world has been established, the characters know a bit more about what’s going on, but also because: Time Travel. Did I mention I’m a time travel fangirl?

The locations are beautifully brought to life as well, and a real passion for the Scottish Islands comes across in the books that almost makes me want to coat myself in midge repellent and head up there again. And it’s only ‘almost’ because last time I went to Scotland I was almost eaten alive by insects and came back looking like a Klingon.

So, overall, a fantastic children’s book that I devoured in moments snatched between jobs I had to do and had to tear myself away from. I really, really, want the next book.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: And All The Stars by Andrea K Höst

Title: And All The Stars

Author: Andrea K Höst

Series: N/A

Genre: Future Dystopia/Science Fiction

Received for review from NetGalley

Summary (from Goodreads)

Come for the apocalypse.
Stay for cupcakes.
Die for love.

Madeleine Cost is working to become the youngest person ever to win the Archibald Prize for portraiture. Her elusive cousin Tyler is the perfect subject: androgynous, beautiful, and famous. All she needs to do is pin him down for the sittings.

None of her plans factored in the Spires: featureless, impossible, spearing into the hearts of cities across the world – and spraying clouds of sparkling dust into the wind.

Is it an alien invasion? Germ warfare? They are questions everyone on Earth would like answered, but Madeleine has a more immediate problem. At Ground Zero of the Sydney Spire, beneath the collapsed ruin of St James Station, she must make it to the surface before she can hope to find out if the world is ending.

Review

Future Dystopia is still enjoying the boost of success given to the genre by The Hunger Games, and what a good thing too. Unlike the wave of copy-cats that usually follows a super seller (Fifty Shades of subtle porn book covers in Tescos right now, anyone?) the whole Dystopia thing has been so very different in every novel in the genre I’ve read.

Höst’s take is aliens.

However, the story is focused on the relationships forged between survivors trying to hide out in Sydney hotels. In fact, the whole alien thing isn’t really a prominent feature until more than halfway through the book, and we don’t really get inside their motivations until the final act. So, instead of Independence Day style action, there is a claustrophobic waiting game, while atrocities are committed in the background.

It’s a bit slow to get going – ironically, despite starting with the heroine surviving at ground zero of the alien attack. Things just take a while to slot into place, and I know there’s merit in discovering things with the characters, but at times I wanted things a bit quicker. And the sense of time was a bit wonky in places too. Occasionally I felt like weeks had passed, only to discover it had been a couple of days.

But, aside from these minor quibbles, this was a great book – a slow burner that might have taken a while to warm up, but soon became intense and gripping, especially in the final act.

And I LOVED that it was standalone. No ‘to be continued’ here. With all the series and trilogies that have been popular lately, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the old standalone book. I’ve read a couple recently, and it’s been a real breath of fresh air.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Title: Warm Bodies

Author: Isaac Marion

Series: N/A

Publisher: Vintage

Genre: Horror/romance

Summary (from Goodreads)

A zombie who yearns for a better life ends up falling in love—with a human—in this astonishingly original debut novel.

R is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He doesn’t enjoy killing people; he enjoys riding escalators and listening to Frank Sinatra. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

What’s Good About It

With all the ‘oops I fell in love with a zombie’ fiction circulating at the moment, it’s a surprise to me as much as anyone who knows me and my fondness for zombies, that I haven’t read any before Warm Bodies. I guess that, while I love zombies and their  groans and decomposing body parts and their taste for human brains, all the things that I love about them really preclude loving them in that way.

I confess, it was beautiful artwork that prompted me to read Warm Bodies, to put aside the sense of revulsion I had at the idea of zombie romance. I had the image in my head of that episode of Being Human, where the reanimated, and rotting, corpse girl is snogged by some bloke for a dare. Grim. However, Warm Bodies was far from grisly.

R makes for an articulate, and lyrical narrator, exploring the ups and downs of zombie life with delicious humour. There is a vast range of emotion covered – from the frenzied horror of feeding, to the surprisingly tender burgeoning romance between R and Julie. R and Julie… Get it?

That slightly obvious literary reference aside, there was very little to criticise about Warm Bodies. Everything seemed pitched just right – poignant and observant without being schmaltzy, visceral and gruesome without detracting from R’s likability – creating a touching read that questions what it means to be human, and what’s really important about living.

What’s Not So Good

Aside from the aforementioned quibble, I did think Julie got over the death of her ex (not a spoiler, it happens straight away) a little too easily. A bit more exploration of the guilt and the conflict it would have caused her would have pushed this to a five star novel for me.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: By Midnight by Mia James

Title: By Midnight

Author: Mia James

Series: The Ravenwood Mysteries #1

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Indigo

Summary (from Goodreads)

April Dunne is not impressed. She’s had to move from Edinburgh to Highgate, London, with her parents. She’s left her friends – and her entire life – behind. She has to start at a new school and, worst of all, now she’s stuck in a creepy old dump of a house which doesn’t even have proper mobile phone reception. Ravenwood, her new school, is a prestigious academy for gifted (financially or academically) students – and the only place her parents could find her a place, in the middle of term, in the middle of London, on incredibly short notice. So she’s stuck with the super-rich, and the super-smart . . . and trying to fit in is when the rest of the students seem to be more glamorous, smarter, or more talented than she is, is more than tough. It’s intimidating and isolating, even when she finds a friend in the conspiracy-theorist Caro Jackson – and perhaps finds something more than friendship in the gorgeous, mysterious Gabriel Swift. But there’s more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye. Practical jokes on new students are normal, but when Gabriel saves her from . . . something . . . . in the Highgate Cemetery, and then she discovers that a murder took place, just yards away from where she had been standing, April has to wonder if something more sinister is going on. . . . and whether or not she’s going to live through it . . .

What’s Good About It

In a market more than saturated with ‘my boyfriend is a vampire’ novels, it’s a breath of fresh air to read a story with real mystery, threat and intrigue. That just happens to have vampires. Okay, so a lot of the tropes are present – Gabriel is gorgeous and mysterious and slightly creepy – but whereas in many of these sorts of books the plot is essentially ‘when are they going to get together’, By Midnight’s story has a lot more depth.

There are some truly shocking turns of events, which leave you feeling that none of your favourite characters are safe – which is a good thing! I can’t be bothered with these stories where no one dies, or so much as gets a hair out of place. Especially when they involve vampires, who are murderous killing machines, come on…

The characters were well developed, and even the more stereotypical ones had dimensions and depths that were waiting to be discovered beneath their vapid surfaces. April hit just the right balance of feisty but insecure and desirous of normality – a very endearing and relatable lead.

And the locations – haunting graveyards, dusty old bookshops, Ravenwood itself: each and every location was beautifully evoked. So real you could be there. And with location comes the ever present sense that someone’s watching, keeping tabs on April, and not in the ‘cute stalker/overprotective boyfriend’ sense of keeping tabs, either. There were more than a few moments that had the hairs on the back of my neck starting to stand up.

What’s Not So Good

Well, there isn’t really anything here we haven’t seen a hundred times before, but as long as you don’t mind that and haven’t reach PR Vampire saturation point, By Midnight is a great read for a slightly creepy winter evening.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching Fire

Author: Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games #2

Genre: YA Future Dystopia

Publisher: Scholastic

Summary (from Goodreads)

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

What’s Good About It

There’s always a danger with follow up books, particularly second books in a trilogy, that they aren’t going to live up to your ludicrously high expectations. I enjoyed Hunger Games so much it was always going to be a tough act to follow. But follow it Suzanne Collins did, and Catching Fire is almost as good as the first installment. Almost.

We are introduced to more of the terrifying world of Panem this time around, and more of the previous victors. Finnick, a dashingly handsome victor from District 4, and ‘Nuts and Bolts’ two quirky additions from 3 are particularly welcome additions to the cast, each bringing their own drama and life to the plot.

And the plot (I’ll get on to my problems with it in a moment) is enough to keep you going. It feels a bit like a rerun at times, but there is enough new, enough tantilising conspiracy threaded throughout to make it feel enough of its own book and not just an answer to the demand for a second helping of the Girl on Fire.

The love triangle between Katniss, Gale and Peeta heats up, and while I’ve seen some criticism of Katniss’s indifference to her two suitors, I think it’s played just right for her character. I totally believed the turmoil it caused, and her reaction, or lack of, to it.

What Wasn’t So Good

The end. Well, it was okay. Like I said – some of the plot felt a little bit like a rerun. Oh Katniss is back in the Hunger Games, haven’t we been here before? But, it was new enough. Unfortunately the most important plot development area – the ending – felt a little rushed. It was like ‘buildupbuildupbuildup’ and then wooosh… the end was done and I was left a bit reeling. I had to read it again to understand what actually happened.

That aside though, this was a great book, which I devoured over a couple of days despite having much work to do! On to Mockingjay next.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Uglies

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Series: Uglies #1

Genre: YA Future Dystopia

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary (from Goodreads)

In a future world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty, the “New Pretties” are free to play and party, while the younger “Uglies” look on enviously and spend the time before their own transformations in plotting mischievous tricks against their elders. Tally Youngblood is one of the most daring of the Uglies, and her imaginative tricks have gotten her in trouble with the menacing department of Special Circumstances. She has yearned to be pretty, but since her best friend Shay ran away to the rumored rebel settlement of recalcitrant Uglies called The Smoke, Tally has been troubled. The authorities give her an impossible choice: either she follows Shay’s cryptic directions to The Smoke with the purpose of betraying the rebels, or she will never be allowed to become pretty. Hoping to rescue Shay, Tally sets off on the dangerous journey as a spy. But after finally reaching The Smoke she has a change of heart when her new lover David reveals to her the sinister secret behind becoming pretty.

What’s Good About It

Ah, I do enjoy a good dystopia. There’s something so enjoyable about imagining a world gone to hell. Frighteningly believable too, most of the time. After jumping on the Hunger Games train years after everyone else, I was looking forwards to jumping on the Uglies one in similar style. I wasn’t disappointed.

I loved the world building. I totally believed everything about the Uglies, the Pretties  and the Specials. It was all so well done, and unique as well as convincing – a potent mix.

The characters were good as well. I totally felt for Tally and her predicament. It would have been easy to hate her for considering betrayal, but the fact that she’s been totally brainwashed, convinced she’s ugly all her life makes it forgivable.

The drip feed of details about the collapse of society keeps things interesting too. I like how something totally mundane like genetically engineering a plant almost wipes out biodiversity, and the actual reason for the breakdown of ‘Rusty’ society is a nice one. No super volcanoes, or global warming disasters. Again, points for originality.

What Wasn’t So Good

It did feel a little slow to start with. It was necessary for world building, and I think the later events would have suffered if it hadn’t been there, but there were times when I was shaking the book thinking, hurry up and get to the Smoke already! But that’s me, impatient.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Waking The Witch by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Waking the Witch

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Women of the Otherworld #11

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Orbit

Summary (from Goodreads)

The orphaned daughter of a sorcerer and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around. But at 21 she knows she needs to grow up and prove to her guardians, Paige and Lucas, that she can be a responsible member of their supernatural detective agency. So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town as a favor to one of the agency’s associates. At first glance, the murders look garden-variety human, but on closer inspection signs point to otherworldly stakes.

Soon Savannah is in over her head. She’s run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker, and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime. To complicate things, something weird is happening to her powers. Pitted against shamans, demons, a voodoo-inflected cult and garden-variety goons, Savannah has to fight to ensure her first case isn’t her last. And she also has to ask for help, perhaps the hardest lesson she’s ever had to learn.

What’s Good About It

I’m a long standing fan of the Women of the Otherworld Series. I think Kelley Armstrong does the perfect realistic heroine and Savannah is a perfect example of that. The super-powerful witch could easily have become the most annoying character in the series – no one likes a character that is all powerful. It’s boring. But Savannah is far from boring and that’s because, despite being super-powerful, she has a whole load of realistic flaws that make her so very human. Yes, she weilds more magical power than most covens, but she also has huge insecurities, a desperate need to prove herself to Paige and Lucas, her adoptive parents, an unrequited love for half-demon Adam Vasic, and a real aversion to asking for help. She does stupid things, makes mistakes, misses stuff, and people get hurt. But she’s also brave, determined and resourceful – things we all wish we would be in a crisis. She’s the sort of heroine we believe we would be capable of being, which makes for brilliant escapist reading.

The plot is just the sort of thing you would expect from Armstrong – tense, taught and filled with murder and intrigue. There was never a moment when I thought ‘Someone please open Savannah’s eyes, because this is so obvious’ which is my quality control test for mystery novels of any nature. I hate guessing things ages before the character does (if I’m not supposed to) and I didn’t once have this problem in Waking the Witch.

The book works well as an addition to the series, but if you are new to it it’s a reasonable place to start. It’s light on reccurring characters, and though there are a few references to previous events that it would be better to know before reading, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t, as there are reminders weaved into the prose for the benefit of both schools of reader. Personally, I think you’d be better off starting from the beginning and enjoying the series in its entirety -  all the books in it I’ve read (and I’ve read most) are fab – but if your library/bank balance does not allow, then you can still enjoy this one.

What’s Not So Good

I didn’t like the ending. I can’t say too much without spoiling it, but while the main thrust of the story was wrapped up, this felt more like ‘part one of two’ than a standalone novel, which most novels in this series are. They feature reccuring characters, and the same narrators are often revisited, but each book stands alone. This one doesn’t, so much. While nothing is left so open as to be annoying, it was a bit too cliffhangerish for my taste. Mostly because I don’t know when the next book is out, but it will probably be ages too long

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Title: Forbidden

Author: Tabitha Suzuma

Series: N/A

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publisher: Definitions

Summary (from Goodreads)

Sixteen-year-old Maya and seventeen-year-old Lochan have never had the chance to be ‘normal’ teenagers. Having pulled together for years to take care of their younger siblings while their wayward, drunken mother leaves them to fend alone, they have become much more than brother and sister. And now, they have fallen in love. But this is a love that can never be allowed, a love that will have devastating consequences …

How can something so wrong feel so right?

What’s Good About It

I came by this book via three other people who’d all passed it on to each other as something that MUST BE READ. Two of these people confessed to having bawled their eyes out at one point or another in the book. I confess, I was dubious. The thought of a story about incest made me feel a bit sick. In an age where almost every consensual sexual preference is acceptable, consensual incest is like the last taboo.

It’s pretty amazing then, that incest can be turned into such a beautiful and tender (if always a little bit disturbing) love story, and also one that is so utterly convincing.

The characterisation is excellent, as is the creation of Lochan and Maya’s homelife. Their situation, their responsibilities and they personalities lend total credibility to the love story. The battles they have with each other and the love they share build on it.

The book never shies away from the details either. The tentative steps into a relationship, and towards physical intimacy, that Lochan and Maya take are recounted with no frills or poetry and I liked that. Gushing romantic language would have made it somehow even more uncomfortable, I feel, like the reader was meant to be fantasising, as they might reading about romance in another YA book. Keeping it grounded in reality kept the edge to the writing, never letting the story drift away from its purpose, its challenge.

By doing this, Suzuma manages to tell her tale with total neutrality – never appearing to either condemn or condone her character’s actions. It’s a book that challenges the reader to come to their own conclusions, make their own decisions about the subject matter – difficult to pull off when dealing with such touchy subject matter. Without walking that line, this could have been a terrible, uncomfortable book. As it is, it’s a heartbreaking story, for many more reasons than the tragic love between Lochan and Maya, a brilliant social commentary, and, at its heart, a tale about family, and the lengths the Whitely’s go to keep their dysfunctional brood together.

What’s Not So Good

It is hard work. I’ve seen a lot of review where people have read this in one sitting, but I couldn’t. I had to keep putting it down and turning to something else. Because I knew what was coming – the blurb is as blunt as the book so you know exactly what you are letting yourself in for. I found it easier from about halfway through, but by the nature of the subject matter, it forces you to think. Not a bad thing, necessarily – I like a book that challenges the way you think – but because it’s such a taboo subject, I did find I needed to come up for air every so often.

Another, minor, thing but I really didn’t think the mother would have had the imagination to come up with such unique names. Maya and Kit were fine, but Tiffin, Willa and Lochan? It didn’t bother me enough to be a real negative, but I think they would have been better off with celebrity kid style names than totally made up ones.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Dead Man’s Cove by Lauren St John

Title: Dead Man’s Cove

Author: Lauren St John

Series: Laura Marlin Mystery #1

Genre: Mystery, Younger Readers

Publisher: Orion

Summary (from Amazon)

When orphaned Laura Marlin moves from a children’s home to live with her uncle in Cornwall, she longs for a life of excitement just like the characters in her favourite detective novels. A real life adventure is on hand as she is deposited at her uncle’s spooky house . . . Why does her uncle, Calvin Redfern, forbid her to go to Dead Man’s Cove? What’s the truth about Tariq, the silent Indian boy who lives with the flamboyant Mukthars? Who is J? Who has left the message in a bottle for Laura to discover? Mysteries abound and who better to solve them than Laura Marlin, ace detective? Accompanied by her trusty companion, Skye, a three-legged husky, the dog she’s always wanted, Laura’s adventures begin.

What’s Good About It

It’s a charming little detective story, without being cutesy. There’s real threat and real danger, and serious issues explored within the narrative. Laura is a great character – very relatable, and admirable. She’s independent, intelligent, brave and loyal, but she has her flaws too, making her rounded and believable.

The progression of the mystery – starting with Laura trying to figure out her uncle, escalating to the grand plot behind everything gives the reader a nice sense of immersion into the story. The suspense and fear builds throughout the book slowly, leaving you on tenterhooks as the closing chapters approach.

Of course, we can’t ignore the fact that this is a children’s book – and with a main character aged 11, it is probably targetting 8-10 year olds as its main audience. One of the best things about Dead Man’s Cove is it manages to do everything I’ve mentioned above, keeping the prose simple enough for an 8 year old, yet without being condescending. I can’t say exactly what issues are being dealt with within the book without giving too much of the story away, but they are serious and complicated issues. Dead Man’s Cove challenges its audience, confronts them with some of the stark realities of the world, and it’s all the better for it.

What’s Not So Good

Some of the characters were a bit stereotyped, but they were mostly minor characters, and the main characters were developed and rounded enough for this to be easily forgiven.

Rating: 4.5/5

Summary (from Goodreads)

Review: Horns by Joe Hill

Title: Horns

Author: Joe Hill

Series: N/A

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Gollancz

Summary (from Goodreads)

Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache, and a pair of horns growing from his temples. At first Ig thought the horns were a hallucination, the product of a mind damaged by rage and grief. He had spent the last year in a lonely, private purgatory, following the death of his beloved, Merrin Williams, who was raped and murdered under inexplicable circumstances. A mental breakdown would have been the most natural thing in the world. But there was nothing natural about the horns, which were all too real.

Once the righteous Ig had enjoyed the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned musician and younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, he had security, wealth, and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more—he had Merrin and a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic. But Merrin’s death damned all that. The only suspect in the crime, Ig was never charged or tried. And he was never cleared. In the court of public opinion in Gideon, New Hampshire, Ig is and always will be guilty because his rich and connected parents pulled strings to make the investigation go away. Nothing Ig can do, nothing he can say, matters. Everyone, it seems, including God, has abandoned him. Everyone, that is, but the devil inside.

Now Ig is possessed of a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre talent he intends to use to find the monster who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It’s time for a little revenge. It’s time the devil had his due.

What’s Good About It

Many many things. Starting with the humour. Despite exploring all the darkest elements of the characters, from minor ones to the major ones, Horns is laugh out loud funny on a number of occasions. I like this combination of horror and humour – not only do they counterbalance each other, ensuring that, even at the darkest moments in the story, you never feel entirely depressed, but the horror is enhanced by the contrast of the humour. A series of horrific events one after the other have a way of dulling you – like you become immune to it. Placing them between the laughs keeps the horror effortlessly fresh.

It’s emotional too. As previously discussed there was one scene in particular that actually made me cry. I think it’s the fact that the characters are so real, so well described and explored – they become like friends you care about, that you are emotionally invested in. And that’s what makes the horror work too. People you don’t care about enduring horrific events is just slash and hack – you have to care about the people before it becomes psychological horror. And the horror in Horns, despite the titular horns, is very very human. It’s the horror of our inner feelings and desires – that nagging fear that people don’t think the same of you as they say – that Joe Hill explores so deftly.

What’s Not So Good

I didn’t really understand the deal with the treehouse, but it was a minor issue (notice how a lot of these ‘not so good’ sections involve me being confused about something? I think this says more about me than the books) and I was quite happy to ride with it with no particular explanation. I just would have liked one to tie off that last loose end.

Rating: 4.5/5