Book Reviews

Worlds of Ink and Shadow – Lena Coakley

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

24795912

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

Publication Date: January 5th 2016 by Amulet Books

Format: eARC from Amulet Books via Netgalley

Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The Brontë siblings have always been inseparable. After all, nothing can bond four siblings quite like life in an isolated parsonage out on the moors. Their vivid imaginations lend them escape from their strict upbringing, actually transporting them into their created worlds: the glittering Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy Gondal. But at what price? As Branwell begins to slip into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as their characters—the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna—refuse to let them go.

Gorgeously written and based on the Brontës’ juvenilia, Worlds of Ink & Shadow brings to life one of history’s most celebrated literary families

(from goodreads.com)

This book combines so many different things I don’t know where to begin. First of all, I really enjoyed it. I adore Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre (the latter being one of my all-time favourite books) but knew very little about the Brontës themselves. This book, though not a biography, incorporates many facts about their lives and it really taught me a lot about the siblings.

The plot was really intriguing as there were so many new discoveries as the story progressed. There were things that weren’t disclosed until nearly the end, but it worked (normally when things are held back I get really frustrated with the book) and because so much was happening elsewhere it didn’t really matter that some things were mentioned later on.

I feel that it’s difficult to talk about the characters in this book as after all, they were real people. However, they were exactly how I’d imagine them to be, especially Emily. I feel that the author did a great job of bringing the characters to life I feel like I understand the Brontë siblings and their lives a lot better than I did before. For example, I never knew that Lowood in Jane Eyre was based on a school that Charlotte and her sisters actually went to.

I loved the descriptions of the settings that were included in this book and they made the places seem real, even the completely fictional locations. I can imagine the moors fairly well – I’ve seen them on TV and I’ve read Wuthering Heights – but this added to the image that I have in my head of them being bleak and mysterious and strangely beautiful.

The magic included in this book was not over the top or unrealistic because the author used characters / stories that seem (I don’t know whether they actually are or not) local to the area and thus the character ‘Old Tom’ seems as though he is just a part of the local folklore. In other words, she hasn’t given the Brontës supernatural powers that they didn’t really have, instead their power came from another source that works perfectly with the setting and the context of the story.

My one problem with this book was that, at times, I got confused with the characters. There are a lot of them in this book, and whilst that makes it interesting, it was slightly confusing at times as well. It was especially a problem earlier on before I’d worked out which characters were fictional (i.e. made up by the Brontës) and which were ‘real’. A lot of the time the book just flitted between worlds and thus it took some time to register which world the Brontës were in, but after a while it was easy to tell as the world they created (Verdopolis) was extremely extravagant and different compared to the Yorkshire Moors.

I really enjoyed the combination of the real world and the fantasy world and I think that it allowed for a lot more to happen, with different characters being able to cross into the other world that they don’t live in. I like having the two worlds contrasting as sometimes I find that books set in a completely different world can be too confusing (I don’t read a huge amount of fantasy – that is changing though) and therefore with this book it was good because I was able to compare the real and the fake and work out what was going on when they came back to their normal world.

As I said, I really liked this book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves the work of the Brontê siblings and anyone who perhaps wants to learn more about them, without reading a non-fiction article or book explaining every detail of their lives. Obviously this isn’t solid fact and it is a fictional novel (I mean there’s a fantasy world involved, realistically it’s not going to be all fact) but if, like me, you just want an idea of some of the main events of their early lives, with a fantasy twist and a good story, then this book is for you.

Rating 4 / 5.

This Song Is (Not) For You – Laura Nowlin

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ 2 Comments

18626414.jpg

Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult.

Publication Date: January 5th 2016 by Sourcebooks Fire.

Format: eARC from Sourcebooks Fire via Netgalley.

Bandmate, best friend or boyfriend? For Ramona, one choice could mean losing them all. 

Ramona and Sam are best friends. She fell for him the moment they met, but their friendship is just too important for her to mess up. Sam loves April, but he would never expect her to feel the same way–she’s too quirky and cool for someone like him. Together, they have a band, and put all of their feelings for each other into music.

Then Ramona and Sam meet Tom. He’s their band’s missing piece, and before Ramona knows it, she’s falling for him. But she hasn’t fallen out of love with Sam either.

How can she be true to her feelings without breaking up the band?

(from goodreads.com)

This was such a good book and I loved so much about it. Before I start with the praise, I’m going to mention the one thing that I didn’t like about it, and it’s the fact that not a lot happened. I just wish there had been a little more to the plot as a lot of events felt like they were repeated again and again and nothing new was introduced, with the exception of the development of the romance.

Talking of the romance, it was adorable. I was expecting a love triangle (*groans*) by the synopsis and the opening chapters. This was, for the most part, avoided, even when it seemed inevitable. I’m so happy about this, and it made the story much more interesting and enjoyable for me, as I’m really getting sick of love triangles (aren’t most people?!).

I loved the characters in this book as well. They were all individual and the author had given a lot of thought to their families as well, which was something that I picked up on and liked. Often characters in young adult books either have the generic loving family or broken, angry family, and nothing in between. Yet in this book I found that each set of parents was different and had their own way of acting and bringing their children up. There was a fairly strong focus on family throughout this book, in the way that the characters mention their parents a lot, whereas they are quite often ignored or rarely mentioned in a lot of YA books.

This was another book with multiple narratives, but it allowed me to understand what was going through the mind of each person, which is quite important to this storyline, as it would have been difficult to understand if you didn’t know how each character felt. I really enjoyed Nowlin’s writing style and thus it was a fun and easy read and I read it really quickly (I think it took me a day to read – maximum of two).

The outcome of this book is unlike anything I’ve read and I greatly appreciated this unique (and adorable) twist. I know that the outcome won’t be for everyone and some people may be uncomfortable with it, but if I’m honest I loved it as it highlighted something that people and society merely judge without understanding. The characters are allowed to sort themselves out without judgement and so it was good to see how they genuinely felt without the pressure of society, and none of them particularly care what others think anyway. I like discovering new things in books, and learning about things that I know very little about, and this book allowed me to learn a little more about the relationship featured (I’m not mentioning it because it’s kind of a spoiler).

This was such a cute read and I would recommend it as some light relief after a difficult book or in the summer especially. I can really see this being a great summer read for some reason – probably because I like light-hearted, fun books that I can read really quickly and easily without having to think too much! I know not much happens, which drags down its rating for me, but I loved the characters and I think that the characters are the most important part of a story and they make this story great.

Rating: 4 / 5 stars.

January TBR 2016

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ 2 Comments

I’m hoping to make a good start into my reading goal of 75 books this year (with the aim to exceed it, hopefully!) and so I have a long TBR this month. A lot of these are ebooks that are published this month and therefore I need to read them asap. I already started some of them in December – January is a good month for book publications obviously! I’m going to start by listing the ebooks that I have to read first and then any physical books that I’d like to get to if I can.

IMG_0143

Ebooks

  1. Firsts – Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
  2. Worlds of Ink and Shadow – Lena Coakley
  3. My Life Next Door – Huntley Fitzpatrick
  4. Beside Myself – Ann Morgan
  5. This Raging Light – Estelle Laure
  6. Under the Dusty Moon – Suzanne Sutherland
  7. All The Rage – Courtney Summers

Physical Books

  1. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
  2. Keep the Aspidistra Flying – George Orwell
  3. Soundless – Richelle Mead
  4. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing – Eimear McBride
  5. The Great Winglebury Duel – Charles Dickens

I know this is ambitious, but why not start the year with a challenge?

This is Where It Ends – Marieke Nijkamp

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

24529123

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction.

Publication Date: 5th January 2016 by Sourcebooks Fire.

Format: eARC from Sourcebooks Fire via Netgalley.

10:00 a.m.

The principal of Opportunity, Alabama’s high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.

The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03

The auditorium doors won’t open.

10:05

Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

From goodreads.com 

This book was fantastic. I stayed up until 2:30am finishing it because I couldn’t put it down I loved it. That, and I couldn’t leave it hanging. I had to find out what happened next.

I was unsure about the format at first, as it is split up into chapters which cover two minutes of the event at a time. It then alternated between four narrators, who told what happened in those two minutes. However I got into this book and it worked so well, because I never lost track of what was going on at the time and it kept it simple.

Multiple narrators are becoming increasingly common in YA now, I mean a few years ago I read a book with multiple viewpoints and thought how different it was. Not anymore. In some books the multiple narrators just make it confusing and don’t actually add anything to the story. It definitely worked with this plot though, as the characters were all in different places and so you get the stories not only from those in the auditorium but also those outside.

All of the narrators have, in some way, interacted with the gunman (Tyler). For example, one of the narrators is his sister. Because they have this personal insight into the gunman’s character I was able to understand him more, and learn more about the events that drove him to the point where he felt the only option was to attack his schoolmates. With narrators that didn’t have such personal ties, it would have been a lot more difficult to comprehend Tyler’s character and make some sense of his point of view.

The characters were very individual and diverse, in that there were LGBT themes and characters from a range of backgrounds and with different ethnicities. However, (this isn’t necessarily against this book and I’ll probably do a later post talking about this) but I do feel like YA authors may try too hard to get all of these characters into a book where they don’t actually add anything. Something was made of the LGBT themes in this novel, but it wouldn’t have taken anything away if they weren’t there. I do kind of feel as though a lot of these characters were made the way they are to fit in with the current norms of YA, rather than for the story itself. But that’s just me. All I mean by that is that I feel sometimes as though YA authors are trying to tick boxes with their characters, rather than creating them as individuals. LGBT characters are fantastic if they add something to the story; I have nothing against LGBT characters, it just happens to be that theme that I picked to mention, there are others.

I really liked the author’s writing style too. I felt that it was fairly matter of fact, and it doesn’t have all the frills that many authors use but it worked so well with this story and I actually like to read books that are quite blunt (I’m not sure that’s how I’d describe this book, but I enjoy books that get to the point).

The plot was well thought out and everything linked extremely well. None of the narrators lacked plot at any point in the book, which tells me that the author spent a lot of time planning the story for each of the narrators, and she did this well.

I do have to question the time it took for it all to be over though. 54 minutes seems like an extremely long time and the police barely seemed to act, which just seems strange. I may be wrong – I haven’t researched the length of time it would take for a shooting to be dealt with – but 54 minutes does seem like an incredibly long time, especially as the police got the call almost straight away.

I feel that this book is so important due to recent events in the world, and it’s scary that shootings are not uncommon in this day and age. This could potentially be anywhere, and that makes it even more real and even more scary. I’d definitely recommend this novel to people as I think it’s a worthy, fast-paced and interesting read and it definitely shows (though not directly) the effect that seemingly small actions can have on someone you wouldn’t even think they would affect. A definite recommendation, though don’t start reading it in the evening unless you want to lose sleep as you won’t be able to put it down.

Rating: 4.5 / 5 stars.

Need – Joelle Charbonneau

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

cover65991-medium

Genre: Young Adult, Thriller, Mystery

Publication Date: 3rd November 2015 by HMH Books for Young Readers

Format: eARC from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Book Group / HMH Books for Young Readers via Netgalley (Thank you!)

Teenagers at Wisconsin’s Nottawa High School are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need . . . regardless of the consequences. Soon the site turns sinister, with simple pranks escalating to malicious crimes. The body count rises. In this chilling YA thriller, the author of the best-selling Testing trilogy examines not only the dark side of social media, but the dark side of human nature.

(from goodreads.com)

 This book has such a good concept, and although it’s exaggerated I do believe that it represents the threat that technology presents extremely accurately. Worryingly, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think that the very basic idea of the website Need created in this book could one day be a reality. I honestly hope not.

The plot was so interesting, and so many things happened. Although it was fast paced I never really got confused with the events and what was actually occurring, although I did find myself getting confused about who was involved with what – I’ll move onto that later. So many unexpected things happened and I read this so quickly, desperate to find out what would follow. I loved the way that the plot took turns that were completely unexpected and it was such a good read because of this.

I’m not normally a fan of thrillers, I have to say, and I only read the ones that really grab my attention so the fact that I enjoyed this shows that it was good. It totally gripped me and I could not put it down once I’d gotten into it.

There was one thing that really frustrated me with this book though, and that was the multiple viewpoints. Now I’m normally a fan of more than one perspective, as it gives more information and other ideas, especially necessary in a book like this. But I just got so confused with them in Need. There were far too many narrators and the only one I could really get into and enjoy was Kaylee, who featured more than the others (which makes sense eventually) and is written in first person. I’m not talking about two or three viewpoints, I mean there were ten and I literally just got to the point where I couldn’t remember who a certain character was and what his backstory / reasons were and I feel like I lost some of the story there. It was great to get more insight and be able to make links between everything that happens but I found I would have to flick back to remember things in order to make these links.

Kaylee was a character I liked, although she could be annoying! But I found that I could relate to her in some ways and at the end of the day it was easier to sympathise with her because she was realistic. She just wants to do the right thing, but sometimes she ends up doing the exact opposite without meaning to. I think that makes people human – everybody has tried to do something good but had the opposite effect. So yeah, I liked Kaylee, though I can completely understand why people don’t like her as she can come across as slightly irritating and persistent.

I did love the way that all of the stories were connected in some way or another. I loved how the chain of events lead from one thing to another all because of greed, it really said something about how humanity is primarily selfish and driven by their greed, doing anything in order to get what they want. People didn’t  consider the consequences of their actions until it was too late and I do think that’s true of the majority of society.

I would definitely recommend this book as it highlights an important issue in society. It shows how even those who don’t particularly want to be a part of something still get dragged in and that social media can have a disastrous effect. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I look forward to picking up more by the author, as this was the first that I have read of hers.

Rating: 4 / 5 stars.

What We Left Behind – Robin Talley

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

what we left behind uk cover

Genre: YA, Contemporary, LGBT

Publication Date: 22nd October 2015

Format: eARC from Harlequin UK via Netgalley (Thank you!)

Toni and Gretchen are the couple everyone envied in high school. They’ve been together forever. They never fight. They’re deeply, hopelessly in love. When they separate for their first year at college—Toni to Harvard and Gretchen to NYU—they’re sure they’ll be fine. Where other long-distance relationships have fallen apart, their relationship will surely thrive.

The reality of being apart, however, is a lot different than they expected. As Toni, who identifies as genderqueer, falls in with a group of transgender upperclassmen and immediately finds a sense of belonging that has always been missing, Gretchen struggles to remember who she is outside their relationship.

While Toni worries that Gretchen, who is not trans, just won’t understand what is going on, Gretchen begins to wonder where she fits in Toni’s life. As distance and Toni’s shifting gender identity begins to wear on their relationship, the couple must decide—have they grown apart for good, or is love enough to keep them together?

(From goodreads.com)

I have mixed feelings about this book, there were parts I loved, parts I hated and parts I simply found a bit boring. I really can’t make my mind up. I didn’t dislike it though, that’s for certain.

The main thing that struck me with this book was that the characters are so stereotypical. Very little about them made them different, which made it boring to read at times as I just wanted there to be something different about the characters. Some things had obviously been included to try to do this – such as the differing backgrounds and races of Toni’s friends, but that was about it. I didn’t feel that there was a huge amount of character development either, they didn’t really change much throughout the book, not nearly as much as I expected given the premise of this book (I mean “shifting gender identity” literally shouts development!).

I also found the constant referring to pronouns irritating. Like I understood they were necessary at times, but not all of the time. The whole LGBT theme was overpowering in the book as well. Every society has a mix of people, both homosexual and heterosexual and yet pretty much every character that Toni and Gretchen meet is gay, or trans or whatever. I love reading about these characters, but I just found it unrealistic how pretty much everyone in the entire book was like this except their parents and roommates.

I did enjoy the way that the narrative voice alternated between Toni and Gretchen throughout, as it allowed me to see both sides of the story and how the events were affecting both characters, not just one of them. It also allowed the story to develop a lot more because had it just focused on one of the characters then I don’t feel that a huge amount would have happened. Because there were these two perspectives however, things moved well and it remained interesting.

I found that the majority of side characters were likeable, which is always a good thing for me as I don’t like disliking characters (usually because they end up annoying me after a while, even if they’re not actually annoying). So to have a collection of genuinely pleasant characters (of course with a few exceptions) made the book a lot more enjoyable for me. However the main two characters Toni and Gretchen, well, they’re not so likeable. I didn’t hate them or anything, they just got on my nerves with their whining and so on and they could have been a lot nicer to the other characters they meet.

However I will say that I learned a lot of things that I had no idea of before I read this book. For example, I wasn’t sure what genderqueer actually meant, and I also learned a lot of what it feels like to be dealing with these issues. We need more writers to deal with issues like these and so I applaud Robin Talley for doing just that. I imagine a lot of teens / young adults (well anyone really) dealing with these issues, or wanting to help someone with these issues, and finding comfort in a book like this as it gives an insight into how someone else feels and what should be said and done (or in some cases, not said and done) to help yourself or another.

This is one of those books which was okay, I enjoyed it, but I probably won’t pick up again. I am glad I read it and I would recommend it, but as I personally find stereotypical characters annoying it wasn’t one of my favourites (it’s one of those tropes I particularly dislike). I’d also had really high hopes for this book, and so when I read it and it had stereotypes and all that I’ve mentioned I felt disappointed, but I definitely think that maybe if I hadn’t had such high expectations for this then I’d have enjoyed it more.

I rated this 4 / 5 stars on goodreads, but I feel that there are other books I’ve rated four stars and I liked so much more, yet I preferred this to those that I’ve rated 3.5 and 3 stars so it’s somewhere in between I think…

Rating: 3.75 / 5 stars. (I won’t make a habit of the .25 / .75 ratings, they’ll only confuse me more!)

Everything, Everything – Nicola Yoon

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ 4 Comments

IMG_6588

Genre: YA Contemporary

Publication Date: September 1st 2015 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Format: Purchased paperback.

Madeline Whittier is allergic to the outside world. So allergic, in fact, that she has never left the house in all of her seventeen years. But when Olly moves in next door, and wants to talk to Maddie, tiny holes start to appear in the protective bubble her mother has built around her. Olly writes his IM address on a piece of paper, shows it at her window, and suddenly, a door opens. But does Maddie dare to step outside her comfort zone?

Everything, Everything is about the thrill and heartbreak that happens when we break out of our shell to do crazy, sometimes death-defying things for love.

(From goodreads.com)

This book was just- Ugh. It was amazing. It completely blew me away. I really, really appreciated that it wasn’t a cancer story, not that cancer stories aren’t good! But I find if a book mentions illness, that illness is cancer (I’m talking about physical illnesses, not mental!) and it’s getting kind of boring and very repetitive. As I said, I really enjoy books like The Fault in Our Stars, Zac and Mia and so on, but it’s nice to have a change. After all, there are so many other illnesses out there unfortunately, and other people need books to relate to.

I guess that’s why I loved this book so much. When Maddy’s mum says mentions how immune systems are complex and difficult to predict etc, I could have cheered (I did take a photo of the page for future reference – but that’s because I’m lazy and couldn’t be bothered to get up and fetch my tabs from the other side of the room…). Somebody gets it. So many people think that if you’re fit and healthy then your immune system is fine and if you have a deficiency then you take supplements to fix the problem but this book recognises it’s not always that simple. And I am so so grateful. There are so many ways one’s immune system can turn against them – Nicola Yoon covered one way, and that’s good enough for me. That, and she raises awareness about rare diseases. I honestly couldn’t ask for a better message in a book.

I also loved the characters in this book. They were all so different – Carla being Mexican, Maddy being half African-American and Japanese (if I remember correctly… Awkward moment when I’m wrong!) There are no stereotypical characters and I loved it. They all had their own quirks and something individual and interesting about their characters too, which was great as it added a depth to not just their characters but the story too. I think that what makes this book stand out is the way that it goes against pretty much every ‘norm’ for YA contemporary novels featuring an illness of some sort and a romance.

Aesthetically this book is incredible. The cover is absolutely stunning – there’s no other word for it and inside there are graphs, notes, emails – loads of things that make it interactive and different. I personally love books that contain things like emails and notes and are presented in an alternative way. They draw me in more than regular books do, and they’re really effective ways of getting in content that would bore the reader if simply written out in a long paragraph. They also really kept the story flowing and it never really got to a slow part where I felt I had to keep reading – I wanted to keep reading. So I did. I ignored (probably – almost definitely) everyone (except maybe the dogs and shouts asking if I wanted a cup of tea – who says no to tea?) and read it in a day. It was that good. In fact, I think it was within like, eight or ten hours or something.

The one problem I had with this book was its ending. You probably know what I’m about to say. The ending itself was great; super cute, adorable and just one of those feel-good endings. But it was rushed. A few more pages and there would be no criticisms of this book whatsoever. I’m not asking for many extra pages – maybe twenty? Just enough to round everything off and finish it up and left the reader feeling bliss. Because I felt (slightly) disappointed. I couldn’t bask in the glory of the ending, and it was a sad thing. However, what actually happened in the ending was so shocking and intriguing and as a reader I really felt as Maddy would have felt – angry when she was angry, hurt when she was hurt, happy when she was happy and so on. For the reader to feel what a character is feeling is something most books try to do, but only some do completely successfully, and this was one of those successful ones.

Seriously though, if you haven’t read this, stop reading my review and go and read it. I still haven’t recovered from how amazing it was.

Rating: (Need I say?) 5/5 stars (Nope, I’m not deducting anything for the end, because the rest more than made up for it).

IMG_6591

Can we please just take a minute to appreciate this cover? It’s so beautiful.

Ashes – Mario Candelaria and Karl Slominski

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

ashes cover

Genre: Graphic Novel

Publication Date: August 1st 2015 by Diamond Book Distributors

Format: ARC ebook from Diamond Book Distributors via Netgalley

Matt always had an easygoing life. Girls liked him, his friends were more like family, and being a firefighter came naturally. Then the accident happened. Now, after the loss of his leg, Matt struggles to cope with his new handicap as he attempts to rebuild his shattered family and once budding career. A riveting tale about perseverance, hard work, and overcoming the odds, Ashes is not to be missed.

(from goodreads.com)

I loved the concept of this graphic novel and I was expecting it to be amazing. But it just didn’t deliver. There was so much potential as well, which was what made it so disappointing.

For one thing, I found the images really dark and it was difficult to make some things out. Admittedly this is only the second graphic novel that I have read, however I have others that I have flicked through and they were much clearer. Because of this lack of clarity, I kept getting confused with who was who and following the speech bubbles was difficult too. I do prefer colour images, and colour would have worked really worked in this graphic novel, seeing as it was about a firefighter (I mean fire and bright colours go hand in hand).

The storyline was the part that had the most potential though. I loved the premise and there were so many parts where it could have been heartwarming and heartbreaking but these parts didn’t arrive. It was so frustrating because it wouldn’t have taken a lot more to make it these things. An extra image or page here and there. That’s it. I found things were started in the plot and they just ended before they could really be turned into something worthwhile. There seemed to only be one fully developed event in the middle of the novel whereas everything else was started, proceeded at a nice steady pace, and then was finished with remarkably quickly. The pacing wasn’t consistent is what I’m trying to say, as well the events being left undeveloped. I also didn’t really like the ending, it was a bit underwhelming. I was expecting a more dramatic, interesting conclusion but it just ended. Like that. Again, potential that went unfulfilled.

I disliked the majority of the characters as well. They weren’t relatable in any way and I really struggled to connect with them. It was therefore not enjoyable as I didn’t feel drawn into the story in the way that I usually am. Also the language that was used was vulgar for the most part and although I don’t have an issue with swearing there are times when it, along with crude references, can just be a bit too much. Such was the case in this graphic novel. I understand that it was in language that many people would use to talk to each other but it made it very unpleasant at times to read and I felt it was unnecessary. As I said, I don’t have an issue with swearing, it really doesn’t bother me, except when there is a bit too much.

I just found this book so confusing. There were points when I couldn’t work out what was happening and why and it just wasn’t nice to read at all at times. The problem was I felt that all of this was avoidable. It could have been clear, the plot better developed, the characters a little less vulgar. I guess this just wasn’t my cup of tea (and I like my tea a lot!). The potential was there, but the story wasn’t and this was really disappointing because the premise sounded so interesting and like the kind of story that would have tugged at my heartstrings. There were a couple of points when I felt some emotion towards one or other of the characters, but for the most part I felt that I was just sitting reading it for the sake of reading (and finishing) it.

Rating: 2 / 5.

Ketchup Clouds – Annabel Pitcher

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

IMG_6385

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance

First Published: November 2012 by Orion

Zoe Collins has a dark and terrible secret that she dares confess to no one. But the day she hears of a criminal on death row who knows all about secrets. And lies. And betrayal. Desperate to confide in someone, Zoe picks up a pen.

These are the letters that she wrote. 

I want to start by saying I loved Annabel Pitcher’s debut novel My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. However I did not love this one nearly as much.

The main thing that struck me was the that narrator of this novel spoke / wrote in an extremely juvenile manner. This is also prominent in My Sister. The difference being that the narrator of My Sister is a five year old, whereas in Ketchup Clouds she’s supposed to be a teenager (something I struggled with until GCSEs (I think) / school was mentioned and I finally registered that actually she’s older than she sounds). This style ruined this book for me, if I’m honest, as I found it difficult to take Zoe, the narrator, seriously.

I also found this novel irritating in many ways. First of all, there is the secrecy. I understand that this is part of the story – she doesn’t want to say anything that would incriminate her. However this was just frustrating when reading it. She kept hinting at what she’d done, but it didn’t become clear until the novel was nearly finished and the lead up had been drawn out as much as it could have been. I dislike novels that keep dragging out but hinting at key events though – I remember there was another one that I read not too long ago (but I can’t remember which one it was for the life of me – typical) and I found it irritating too! It’s just something that I can’t take to in books.

I just didn’t like Zoe that much either. I found her too immature, almost childish, not in the way she acted particularly. I don’t know, I can’t really explain it! But there was a juvenile element that I think was prominent because of the narrative voice.

Sometimes I think an epistolary novel can be really successful, and nothing is lost from the story. But I felt a lot was held back due to this form throughout this book – things that could have been included and not ruined the secretive feel (which, although I didn’t particularly enjoy this aspect, I realise that it is part of the story). I did like the different idea of the letters being addressed to someone she doesn’t know however, as this did mean that I could learn more about Zoe, but at the same time she was a very unreliable narrator as for one thing she started by saying she’d given a false name… Leading me, as the reader, to question what part of the story she is telling the ‘truth’ (obviously it’s fiction, but you get what I mean!).

As I mentioned, I felt that the storyline had been dragged out a lot before the ‘event’ is revealed. Thus I found the pace too slow for me, but I do prefer books with a quicker pace as I find it difficult to pick up books where things move slowly or very little happens.

The title has very little relevance to the novel as well. The reference is in relation to her youngest sibling (Dot) and something she does that has very little consequence (I believe) in the novel. Although I think that the title is intriguing, I think that there are so many other, better options. But that’s just personal opinion and I bet many people who have read this book see relevance in that small event and as a result think the title suitable and perfect for the novel.

I think, however, I’d gotten myself too excited to read this book as I’d loved My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece so much, and it let me down. Maybe if I had read this one first I’d have enjoyed it more. I do have a friend who has read this and she really enjoyed it, and it wasn’t a bad book; it just wasn’t to my taste to be honest. I will read more of Annabel Pitcher’s novels when they are released (and when I have money to purchase them!), this hasn’t put me off. But maybe next time I’ll open one with lower expectations than I did Ketchup Clouds.

Rating: 3/5 (I didn’t hate it – I just felt let down by it).

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – Jesse Andrews

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ 7 Comments

IMG_2904

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Humour

First published: March 1st 2012 by Amulet Books

Up until senior year, Greg has maintained total social invisibility. He only has one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time—when not playing video games and avoiding Earl’s terrifying brothers— making movies, their own versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics. Greg would be the first one to tell you his movies are f*@$ing terrible, but he and Earl don’t make them for other people. Until Rachel.

Rachel has leukaemia, and Greg’s mom gets the genius idea that Greg should befriend her. Against his better judgment and despite his extreme awkwardness, he does. When Rachel decides to stop treatment, Greg and Earl must abandon invisibility and make a stand. It’s a hilarious, outrageous, and truthful look at death and high school by a prodigiously talented debut author.

(from goodreads.com)

The cover and premise had me so excited for this book, I mean, LOOK AT THE COLOURS (Yes, I’ve used the picture I posted on Instagram because I loved how it turned out). How many books are this colourful? I don’t think there’s a colour that isn’t used (unless you’re really picky and start naming shades… Don’t be that person…). I also love books that have a similar premise (i.e. kid with cancer / illness) not in a morbid way, they’re normally profound and brilliant. For example, I loved The Fault in our Stars and I also loved Zac and Mia (review here).

Unfortunately I did not love this one.

It was okay. I liked parts. I particularly liked the structure of it – the use of scripts and the aesthetic both on the inside and outside of this book. I did also, however, find the character of Greg irritating, and Earl just rude. Rachel seemed nice enough, there just wasn’t enough of her in the book, it was very much Greg talking about himself.

I didn’t like the narrative voice. As I’ve said, I don’t like Greg. Okay, I completely understand that some of the things he says are probably true (in other words they’re the things that everybody thinks and nobody wants to say) but I just found his lack of empathy for Rachel irritating. At points it was like he wasn’t even trying. Like I get him not treating her like she’s about to break etc but instead of complaining about having to see her he could at least have been a bit more cheerful for her. Even Earl was nicer than Greg at points and I found Earl to be quite rude most of the time, as he showed pretty much everyone no respect.

Also, I didn’t find this book funny. I can probably count on one hand the amount of jokes that I laughed at. Reading the reviews on goodreads I do realise that a lot of people did find it hilarious, I just really didn’t. I think that may have been because Greg was grating on my nerves so anything he said just annoyed me though! I was expecting it to be humorous because of what people had been saying about it and I was disappointed when I found a lot of the jokes to just be silly comments. If that makes sense.

I felt that the plot lacked something as well. It wasn’t that it was a terrible plot at all (Jesse Andrews’ writing I  found to be very good and the plot was interesting), I just felt that it was missing something. Like there could have been more and it wouldn’t have been too much – it would have made it more interesting. A lot of it was almost the same thing repeated (a lot of the repetition was regarding his film making). I also found it to be quite slow paced, which, because very little (I felt) happened, bored me in places.

Jesse Andrews, however is clearly a very talented writer. I liked the way that his writing was so realistic – it sounded very much like a teenage boy (one I don’t particularly like) would speak. It was quite brutal, but not aggressive – just honest. I do quite like that in writing. I’m not one to sugar coat things myself (after all, you are reading this not quite complimentary review) but I’m not for rudeness either. Just brutal honesty.

I do believe that the reason I didn’t enjoy this book as much was because I had such high expectations, and when I found it didn’t meet those expectations, I was disappointed and didn’t enjoy the rest. Maybe one day I’ll reread it and enjoy it much more because I know what to expect!

I think I would still recommend this book to some people, despite the fact that I didn’t particularly enjoy it. This is because my sense of humour differs greatly from my friends’ (for example I do not find sitcoms funny in the slightest, I just feel awkward watching them as the actors just seem to be making fools out of themselves – but that’s just me, most of my friends find sitcoms hilarious). Back to the point. What I’m saying is that my sense of humour differs from the majority and therefore the majority would probably find this novel humorous and really enjoy it, which is why I’d recommend it. It’s also a super-quick read for a day where you’re doing nothing! And who doesn’t want that gorgeous, vibrant cover on their shelf?

Rating: 3 / 5.