Tag: contemporary

Book Review: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

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9781406354386

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Publishing Info: Walker Books (first published 2010)

Pages: 320

Star Rating: 3.5/5

Back Cover Summary:

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life – and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.

This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie’s struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.

What first attracted me to this book was the many poems spaced throughout the book, which are designed to look like they’re written in Lennie’s handwriting on an assortment of things including crumpled notepad paper and paper cups. I can’t imagine how that would look on an eReader, so I think this is one of those books which is best experienced in paperback.

The poems added an interesting element and created another level for looking into Lennie’s thoughts and feelings. The idea is that Lennie writes these poems on random scraps and they’re dotted around the town. The issue I had was that it randomly says Lennie scribbles a poem on a few occasions in the story, but then the reader isn’t given any insight into why she has written that particular poem, what her thoughts were when she was writing it. It’s flippantly mentioned that she writes the poem, and then that’s it the story moves on. This meant that it felt disconnected. It contrasted with the high level of access the reader gets to Lennie’s thoughts through the whole narrative and just seemed odd that her thoughts just disappear whenever she writes a poem. It just felt strange to read and inconsistent.

The book kept me reading and I found Lennie’s narration charming and at times humorous, as well as her quirky family putting a smile on my face. Grief, I think, as a major part of the book was portrayed well. I could feel Lennie’s emotions and the metaphors Nelson used meant I could really put myself in Lennie’s position and understand her grief. Everyone copes with grief in different ways, and I think this was shown well through the members of Lennie’s family.

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Book Review: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

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The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary Fiction, Romance

Publishing Info: April 2012 by Hodder Children’s Books (kindle edition, movie tie-in) (first published 2010)

Pages: 300

Star Rating: 2.5/5

Back Cover Summary:

Beauty really does lie in the eye of the beholder…

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is smart, cynical, loyal – and well aware that she’s not the hot one in her group of friends. But when high-school jock and all round moron Wesley Rush tells her she’s a DUFF – a Designated, Ugly Fat Friend – Bianca does not the see funny side. She may not be a beauty but she’d never stoop so low as to go anywhere near the likes of Wesley … Or would she? Bianca is about to find out that attraction defies looks and that sometimes your sworn enemies can become your best friends … With a wry and tell-it-like-it-is voice, The Duff is a witty and poignant story of a teenager struggling with the rules of high school attraction, along with the breaking down of her relationships with family and friends. It is a novel about what it means to be sexy, in a world where we feel we have to be perfect!

I’m not sure why I decided to read this book since I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t like it. That doesn’t usually dictate a book choice. I’ve had this on my Kindle for a while, I think I got it in a deal. But really, it’s been a couple of years since I would have enjoyed this kind of book so I’m not sure what I was thinking.

It could have been worse, I’ll say that. But it could have been way better too. One of the upsides was that the main character’s voice and personality came through the narration right from the first page. I can see why people would like Bianca’s character and associate with her. She’s a pretty normal girl and isn’t one of those main characters who seems to be perfect, or who spend the whole time moaning about how they aren’t perfect/beautiful. Bianca only really starts thinking about her appearance when Wesley calls her the DUFF. She has flaws and did stuff which seemed really stupid to me and would have been annoying, but Keplinger put her thoughts across really well so I kind of understood Bianca’s reasoning, even though I thought she was being an idiot.

In terms of the other characters, Wesley was okay but didn’t really break the mould much. The jock-who-sleeps-with-everyone-but-then-meets-the-main-character-who-changes-him trope has been done before. Jessica and Casey, Bianca’s friends, were quite flat and 2D at the beginning and I couldn’t even distinguish between them, but as the book went on I gradually could see their individual personalities. They’re pretty good friends.

So many teen romance stories just bang on about the hot guy and the romance stuff. But The DUFF actually deals with some more serious topics too. It looks at Bianca’s home life, at issues of divorce and alcoholism. I was pleasantly surprised to see these serious issues in there, as I’d been expecting it to be over the top teen romance. It made the book more realistic.

However, as the book went on there were just too many stereotypes. Way too many. At the start when there were some I could see why, because the whole point of the book is about stereotypes and perceptions, but as the book went on they just kept piling up.

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Book Review: The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

M.T.Wilson @ The Last Book on the Left4 Comments

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

Genre: General Fiction, Contemporary Fiction

Publishing Info: May 2013 by HarperCollins (kindle edition)

Pages: 320

Star Rating: 5/5

Back Cover Summary:

‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’

There are books you can’t stop reading, which keep you up all night.

There are books which let us into the hidden parts of life and make them vividly real.

There are books which, because of the sheer skill with which every word is chosen, linger in your mind for days.

The Shock of the Fall is all of these books.

The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of one man’s descent into mental illness. It is a brave and groundbreaking novel from one of the most exciting new voices in fiction.

The Shock of the Fall wasn’t what I expected. It was more. It was a rollercoaster of emotions and sometimes I felt like I was drowning in the words but I couldn’t stop reading. The words, so simple, but drew me in so much and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget this book.

I read the kindle edition, and I think it would be better to read it in paperback. It was fine reading it on kindle, but I think the experience of it would be better in physical copy. There are images and different fonts used, which I think would be easier to see in paperback.

There isn’t exactly a plot, so to say. It’s mostly the narrator, Matthew, talking about his past and life. He is mentally ill, diagnosed with schizophrenia in the book. It was a real delve into the character’s mind, of how his thought processes work and how he conveys things in his writing (the narrator is writing their story). I really felt like I was seeing things through his eyes. I was in his mind, feeling his thoughts and feelings.

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Book Review: Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

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Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Publishing Info: May 2008 by Margaret K. McElderry Books (first published 2007)

Pages: 667

Star Rating: 4/5

Back Cover Summary:

Sometimes you don’t wake up. But if you happen to, you know things will never be the same.

Three lives, three different paths to the same destination: Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital for those who have attempted the ultimate act — suicide.

Vanessa is beautiful and smart, but her secrets keep her answering the call of the blade.

Tony, after suffering a painful childhood, can only find peace through pills.

And Conner, outwardly, has the perfect life. But dig a little deeper and find a boy who is in constant battle with his parents, his life, himself.

In one instant each of these young people decided enough was enough. They grabbed the blade, the bottle, the gun — and tried to end it all. Now they have a second chance, and just maybe, with each other’s help, they can find their way to a better life — but only if they’re strong and can fight the demons that brought them here in the first place.

Although I have read plenty of poetry and plenty of novels, I had yet to read a novel in verse until Impulse by Ellen Hopkins. The book looks dauntingly thick, but is actually an incredibly quick read since there aren’t all that many words on each page. It explores how three teenagers came to be at Aspen Springs psychiatric hospital and doesn’t shy away from dealing with complex issues.

The book uses three different narrators – Vanessa, Tony and Conner – with headings to show which is which. It switches between the perspectives about every three poems. Surprisingly, I was mostly able to keep track, but there were times where I forgot which point of view it was, got confused, and had to flick back and check.

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Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

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Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Publishing Info: September 2009 by Penguin UK (first published 2007)

Pages: 297

Star Rating: 5/5

Back Cover Summary:

You can’t stop the future.

You can’t rewind the past.

The only way to learn the secret is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home to find a strange package with his name on it. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker – his classmate and first love – who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

Hannah’s voice explains there are thirteen reasons why she killed herself. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

All through the night, Clay keeps listening – and what he discovers changes his life…

Where to begin. I don’t give five star reviews much. I have to love a book so much it hurts. A five star review, to me, isn’t about a book being perfect. A book can’t be perfect, it’s impossible. A five star book is one that will stay with me forever.

I’ve wanted to read this book for years, and finally found myself opening the cover a few days ago. I don’t usually write a review right after finishing a book. I give it a couple of days to let it sink in. But today I’m writing this review having finished Thirteen Reasons Why half an hour ago.

The book uses the dual narratives of Hannah and Clay as he listens to the tapes Hannah left behind. It was hard to get around my head that Hannah was dead before the book even started. Isn’t there any hope? Can’t Clay save the day? No. This isn’t a book about saving someone, it’s about exploring what happened to them to make them give up.

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Book Review: Spin the Love by Lisa Terry

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Spin the Love by Lisa Terry

Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller

Publishing Info: Self-published September 30th 2015

Pages: 192

Star Rating: 4/5

Back Cover Summary:

It was supposed to be a game to heat up their summer—not ruin their lives.

Sixteen-year-old Whispy Callahan lands in trouble thicker than Florida’s humidity when she plays a twisted game of Dare. Everything would have been fine if she hadn’t fallen for one of the player’s “targets” along with dredging up buried murderous tendencies. Forget the game—now Whispy needs to find her boyfriend’s murderer, but that might prove difficult since everyone thinks she’s insane. They could be right.

In Spin the Love a game of dare takes main character Whispy on a bit of a roller coaster ride. A game of dare is quite an obvious tool for creating plot and tension, but what made it work really well in this book was the dynamics between the three characters involved in the game. The complications of their relations to each other made it much more interesting to see what would happen and how the plot would progress.

Whispy’s characterisation was great. Her voice and personality came through the first person narrative. Her mental health problems were dealt with with reasonable sensitivity to the subject, although the use of this aspect of her character for mystery in the plot is a bit of a trope. The other characters were also well described and fleshed out, with personal history that impacts on their present characters.

It doesn’t spoil anything to say that Whispy’s boyfriend is killed in the book, as that’s in the blurb, which is good because that’s something that didn’t quite add up to me and would like to discuss in this review. Her boyfriend is quite obviously murdered, and there is a funeral, but there doesn’t appear to be any investigation. I found this very odd and it doesn’t make sense. If someone is murdered there is an investigation, and people who know the victim are questioned. So why wasn’t Whispy questioned by police? It doesn’t make sense and I felt that was quite a hole in the plot.

The ending was phenomenal. There was a big twist that I didn’t see coming at all. I tried to piece it together as I read but I didn’t expect what happened. It kept me engaged and had a satisfying ending.

The book was well written and much more accomplished that the last book I read by the author, which while good wasn’t quite polished. Despite a couple of problems I had with the book, I really enjoyed reading it and it kept me hooked until the end.

Book Review: The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

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The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi

Genre: General Fiction, Contemporary

Publishing Info: January 2009 by Faber and Faber (first published 1990)

Pages: 288

Star Rating: 3/5

Back Cover Summary:

The hero of Hanif Kureishi’s first novel is Karim, a dreamy teenager, desperate to escape suburban South London and experience the forbidden fruits which the 1970s seem to offer. When the unlikely opportunity of a life in the theatre announces itself, Karim starts to win the sort of attention he has been craving – albeit with some rude and raucous results.

The Buddha of Suburbia is one of those books I neither love nor hate, hence the middling three star rating. It was an easy read that explores themes of identity, gender, belonging and racism. It didn’t take me long to finish it as it is a short book. It isn’t slow and doesn’t drag too much which probably makes it more palatable.

The characters are painted quite vividly, which is one of the best aspects of the novel. I found I had a clear picture of the appearances and personalities of Karim’s family and friends as we pick them up along the course of the novel. This is a coming-of-age story in which Karim takes a path to find what he wants to do with his life. He spends a lot of time floating around between the houses of his family, sleeping here and there, but not seeming grounded. Is he grounded by the end of the novel? I’m not sure. It seems that at the end he is on the way to this place, but maybe hasn’t quite reached it.

The book is supposedly a comedy. The cover is littered with quotes by authors and newspapers saying how funny it is. But obviously I just didn’t get it. There were some slightly amusing moments, hardly able to even lift a humoured smile to my face, and I certainly wasn’t laughing. Maybe I just didn’t get this kind of humour. It was at times rather odd. There are some strange people and some strange goings-on in this book. Maybe I didn’t get the 70’s references?

Overall, the word to sum it up is average. I didn’t think it was anything particularly amazing but it wasn’t exactly bad either.

Book Review: The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

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The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Genre: Contemporary, Thriller/Horror

Publishing Info: 2013 by Abacus (first published 1984)

Pages: 244

Star Rating: 4/5

Back Cover Summary:

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different reasons than I’d disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda more or less on a whim.
That’s my score to date.
Three.
I haven’t killed anybody for years, and don’t intend to ever again.
It was just a stage I was going through.
Enter – if you can bear it – the extraordinary private world of Frank, just sixteen, and unconventional, to say the least.

The Wasp Factory is certainly an interesting read. When I started reading I wasn’t sure if I liked it but as I read it grew on me as I became more intrigued and realised how clever it is. It is most certainly an odd book, with some very strange goings-on.

The plot revolves around Frank, and the events that follow when he discovers that his mad brother has escaped from the institution where he was living and is heading back to the island in Scotland where Frank and his father live. The book is a sort of self-discovery for Frank as he finds out about his true identity, but I can’t say any more as I don’t want to spoil it.

The character of Frank is quite disturbing. He sacrifices animals and enjoys blowing things up with bombs. Yet he isn’t a villain or an anti-hero. He’s one of those characters you can’t categorise. And despite the awful things he does and has done I wanted to follow his journey. I quite like reading unreliable narrators and Frank is certainly one of those.

Apparently, what I’ve heard from other people who have read it is that it is a subtle dark comedy. I didn’t really see any comedy in it at all. But then dark comedy isn’t usually my thing so maybe I just couldn’t see it.

There was only one thing holding me back from giving this book five stars. There is a scene (which I can’t explain without spoiling the book) which I found particularly graphic and upsetting. It’s an image I won’t be able to get rid of now that I have read. Something which I can’t unread. Personal circumstances probably made this scene more upsetting for me then it might for other people. I just thought I ought to explain why I only gave it four stars.

I would really recommend this book. It’s unusual (in a good way) and such an interesting, dark read. It wasn’t what I was expecting, and there were a few twists and turns along the way that were very surprising. It’s probably not for everybody, but I would recommend having a stab at it. It will be worth it in the end.

Book Review: Moment(s) by Lisa Terry

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Moment(s) by Lisa Terry

Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, New Adult

Publishing Info: Self-published January 10th 2015

Pages: 218

Star Rating: 4/5

Back Cover Summary:

Scottish rocker Julian McLane lives life as normally as possible. But fame can be lonely, which might be why he’d spent a year looking for the girl he caught making a wish behind the concert arena. His fans aren’t happy to share him now that he has found Emilie—too bad their violent displeasure only pushes the couple together.

Emilie needs protection from rabid fans, so Julian convinces her to tour with him and his prank-loving bandmates so his security team can watch over her too. Julian thinks their coupledom is as right as a love song. But something’s very wrong about murder victims wearing the band’s concert bracelets. Someone seems intent on downsizing the fandom.

Julian holds a twisted mess of clues about the killer’s identity, with every day bringing a different theory, and he’s beginning to think finding the killer means losing Emilie forever.

Moment(s) is a mix of romance and mystery, with a string of murders in the background of the romantic dealings between Julian and Emilie. Despite there being some issues with the book I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I’m going to deal with that issue at the start so we can get it over and done with. Basically, the book needed more proofreading. Reading a self-published book I’m expecting there will be some typos and things as the writer doesn’t have access to the editing team as someone publishing under a publisher. However, there were a few too many obvious typos in almost every chapter that could have easily been ironed out through a proofread. The last couple of chapters before the epilogue also needed more work as it was just very confusing and was nowhere near as polished as the first half of the book.

Now we’ve got that out of the way let’s talk about the actual story. I thought the plot was good and there were plenty of twists that I didn’t see coming. I also liked the mix of romance and mystery, I thought that combination of genre worked really well in this book.

The characters were great and all very likable. The interactions between the band members was realistic and humorous and just so well written. I also liked the slow build of the relationship between Julian and Emilie and thought their relationship was written very well. It was a bit predictable that they would end up together but the mystery going on in the background meant there was something to keep me reading.

I had some issues with the gymnastics described in the first half of the book. In addition to performing their songs the band also do some gymnastics on stage. I get that they are doing things that gymnasts wouldn’t normally do as they are outside the competition environment but some of it just seemed unrealistic. It was hard to visualise but at one point they were going directly from one piece of equipment to the next but given the structure of the equipment I don’t see how they could be placed close enough together for them to be able to swing from one to the other.

Overall I feel like the story had the potential to be a better novel than this. It perhaps needed a little more time to be edited before it was published. However I did thoroughly enjoy reading it and would definitely recommend it. I will be reading more books by Lisa Terry.

Book Review: You by Caroline Kepnes

M.T.Wilson @ The Last Book on the Left1 Comment

You by Caroline Kepnes

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Thriller

Publishing Info: Kindle Edition, Published September 2014 by Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Pages: 433

Star Rating: 4/5

 

Back Cover Summary:

When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.

As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

A terrifying exploration of how vulnerable we all are to stalking and manipulation, debut author Caroline Kepnes delivers a razor-sharp novel for our hyper-connected digital age. You is a compulsively readable page-turner that’s being compared to Gone Girl, American Psycho, and Stephen King’s Misery.

 

You is at once an incredibly unique, interesting, disturbing and gripping contemporary suspense novel. It isn’t exactly a romance, as the nature of Joe’s obsession over Beck makes it too unnerving to be classified so. It is the only book I have ever read that is written entirely in second person. At first, it felt a little odd to read, but it is written so well that after a while it feels natural, and I felt it wouldn’t have worked so well if it had been written in any other way. In many ways the book reminds me of The Collector by John Fowles, but Kepnes definitely puts those ideas of obsession into a contemporary novel with new verve.

When Beck walks into the bookshop where Joe works he is instantly captivated by her. He stalks her, falls in love with her, and ensures that their paths cross again. The novel tells the story of how Joe’s feelings develop, how their relationship changes, and how he would do anything to get her, and keep her.

Joe is a very interesting protagonist. He is very much an unreliable narrator and it is both interesting and disconcerting to see the world through his eyes. Without giving away any spoilers, partly what makes him that way is how he is so in love with Beck, but shows a complete lack of emotion and compassion in some of the acts he carries out. He shows many characteristics of a psychopath, and although it doesn’t state he is one, I am pretty sure he must be. I like how Beck, the ‘love interest’, isn’t perfect. She has many flaws and is a very realistic character. So it was a nice change to read about imperfect characters, as so many books these days are all about how wonderful love is and happy endings. You, on the other hand, shows the destructive nature of love and moves away from idealised storylines.

For the most part, the novel kept me hooked, although towards the middle I did begin to get a little tired of it, just for a few chapters. There were plenty of unexpected turns, both in the plot and in Joe’s emotional state. Although, there were a lot of pop culture references, of which most people wouldn’t understand all of them.

However, it could have been better. It is by no means a perfect, five star book. The idea has been done before, and although it was written in a fresh and interesting way, I felt Kepnes could have twisted the plot a bit more. I would have liked her to have shaken things up just a bit more.

This is by no means a book that everyone will enjoy. Some will absolutely hate it. But I found myself liking it. There is something interesting in the way it is so creepy, something that really grabbed my attention and intrigued me. If you’re interested in psychology then you would probably like this. If you are after a romance story, this is not the book for you.