loociejj

31/08/2016 loociejj fantasy fiction, mythical creatures, Vampires

Dept. 19: The Rising – Will Hill #2

So if you loved the first one that it will come as no surprise that you will love this one too. This book starts off where the last one finished. Frankenstein is dead after fighting with a giant werewolf and falling off a cliff after the Lindisfarne incident. Jamie and Larissa are now an item but are keeping it secret from Kate, who has a secret of her own. Alexandru Rusmanov is dead but his brother Valeri has managed to find Dracula’s ashes and resurrect him – sort of. Valeri calls on their other brother, Valentin, currently living quite pleasantly in New York, to join the battle and attack Blacklight and kill them all. He’s not to keen on this and comes up with a plan of his own.

The other part to this story is that Frankenstein is not dead but has lost his memory. He is lost in Europe but a nagging memory makes him head to Paris where he meets his old ‘friend’ Latour. He ends up in this weird version of hell with a crazy vampire called Lord Dante, the self proclaimed Vampire King of Paris.

Jamie is settling in at Dept. 19, as are Larissa and Kate. His mother is now, unfortunately, a vampire but she lives quite happily in the secure basement and he goes to visit her. They are all supposed to still only be about 16 so they have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. Jamie is also a pretty angry bloke. He befriends the doctor who is doing secret experiments in the secret lab and discovers that he is trying to find a cure for vampirism. Sounds like a good thing right? Hmm, well wait and see. There is also the appearance of another character who everyone assumes is dead but is also on a quest to find the cure so that he can save his wife.

This is a big book. I loved it. I was a little bit excited to read it and cannot wait to read the rest- they are so well written and gory and just a bit crazy, but I think that’s why I like them. I did also really like The Enemy Series by Charlie Higson so that might be why! The idea that the government has a secret department to deal with the supernatural is kind of conspiracy theory gone mad, but how exciting if it were actually true! I also like the historical element of it. I liked the way that it had a split narrative in the first one and this isn’t quite the same but, there are some bits set in the past and it fleshes out some of the main characters and how they got to be in Blacklight in the first place. Also, because of the first one it’s difficult to know which people to trust, especially in the organisation.

If you haven’t read this series then why are you ignoring me?! Get to it….

Further reading: Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and anything gothic. Also The Enemy Series by Charlie Higson but definitely not Twilight – it’s too wholesome!

30/08/201604/09/2016 loociejj historical, War

The Big Lie – Julie Mayhew

This book is long listed for the Hounslow Teen Read 2017 and is well worth a read.

Jessika Keller lives in England after the second world war. Except we didn’t win the war, we won a negotiated peace with the Germans and now live under their rule like the rest of Europe. Jessika lives in a quiet street with her parents and her sister, except her sister is slightly different to her and her father seems to have a very important job that makes everyone scared of him. She also has an older sister who has already started her training and lives away from home. They don’t get on and she only appears briefly in the book. When Jessika is young, new neighbours move in next door and her father encourages her to make friends with the girl who is the same age; her name is Clementine and she is beautiful.

As they grow older Clem seems to have different ideas about the way the world works. She isn’t an obedient servant of the Reich and decides not to attend Deutsch Madel meetings anymore, and the two girls begin to lose touch after an awkward incident where Jess tries to kiss Clem. Jess then becomes friends with another girl in the group who she initially didn’t like and they begin a secret relationship. Both are aware that they are strictly forbidden from having a love affair as men and women must do their duty to the Fuhrer and produce children (you get a medal if you have five! that was an actual thing in Nazi Germany) and Jess tries to encourage a boy at the youth group to cover it up. In the meantime things are not going well for Clem and Jess needs to make some harsh decisions. She is an accomplished Ice Skater and trains every day; when the girls reach 18 they go away to finish off their skills (not sure where Jess is supposed to be going – some kind of training camp I think) and she only has a few days to save Clem before she goes.

This book is an interesting take on what it may have been like for young people living in Germany between the wars and why so many of them were sucked into the Hitler ideal. The idea that we have a path mapped out for us by the state is pretty scary but, if you are so indoctrinated you may just go along with it like Jess does. She’s not a very strong character and she irritated me, I wanted to shake her sometimes! But, having said that, she is going against everything she has been brought up to believe. The book has a menacing quality about it which, I suppose is what it must have been like then. Who do you trust not to betray you; and Jess suffers the worst betrayal of all. It has some similarities to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in that, if you didn’t know a bit of the history some bits might pass you by.

30/08/201630/08/2016 loociejj death, grief, love, romance

The Sky is Everywhere – Jandy Nelson

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This is a big book…. it deals with raw emotion and all the big themes; death, love, grief and the sheer overwhelming ride that we call life (I know… a bit cheesy but it was deep man!)

Lennie lives in a small town in America – let’s call it ‘generic small town America’. She plays the clarinet in the school band, has an older sister called Bailey that she idolises, lives with her Grandmother and Uncle Big and has a best friend who she tells everything to. Life is good. Then, out of the blue her Gram gets a phone call saying that her sister has dropped dead in the middle of rehearsals for a play and her world falls apart. Lennie has always felt like she isn’t good enough, or not as good as Bailey at any rate. Her mother has gone off and left them and her dad isn’t mentioned so not sure who he is so she probably has severe abandonment issues too.

The only person who seems to come close to understanding her loss is Toby, her sister’s boyfriend. They were both 19 and had just got engaged. He cannot understand what has happened and neither can she so they lose themselves in each other. But then along comes Joe Fontaine with his infectious smile and willingness to try and break through the grief to rescue Lennie. And he is adorable. He turns up at the house with breakfast every day, plays every musical instrument known to man, used to live in Paris so speaks French, has gorgeous brothers that all the girls fancy….. you get the idea? He even writes a song just for her (aah the romance!)

This book is deep. It deals with grief and the guilt that the living feel. Lennie feels guilty that she is still alive and can still love and be loved, all normal emotions after losing someone you have loved. She makes mistakes, but then don’t we all? Don’t we all do stupid things when we are unbalanced and unsure of what to do next? The shock and the anger and the sheer selfishness of grieving is so well written; how each character deals with it in their own way and block each other out at the same time. I haven’t read her other book but it is on my list of things to do but whatever you do, don’t judge Lennie for her decisions until you can say you have walked down that road, her friend does and of all the characters in this book she is the one I like the least.

PS. I love Uncle Big and his womanising ways, especially they way he seduces women in his crane!

Futher Reading: I Give you The Sun by Jandy Nelson and Bridge to Terabithia by Katharine Paterson.

30/08/201615/06/2017 loociejj culture, friendship, love, romance, Sexuality

Remix – Non Pratt

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This book is on the longlist for the Hounslow Teen Read Award 2017.

Remix is essentially the tale of two friends. Kaz is dumped by her rugger bugger boyfriend Tom. She is a tiny bit devastated as she super loves him and expected to lose her virginity to him, as well as get married and have lots of babies I expect. Ruby is her wayward friend who has recently dumped her gorgeous but untamed boyfriend Stu after she found out that he had been unfaithful. Her brother Lee and his boyfriend Owen manage to get the two girls tickets to the local music festival (think Glasto and then scale it down a bit) and both are looking forward to a new start before the summer ends; or are they?

It’s kind of like a comedy of errors this book. All the main players end up being at the festival; Tom is there with his mates, Stu is there being all brooding and effortlessly cool, Lee is having some problems with Owen and is just about to go travelling and leave it all behind…. Then there is the lead singer of the girls’ favourite band; Gold n Tone.

The book has two narrators; both girls have their own POV and this can get a little frustrating because sometimes you just want them to speak to each other. Surely as best friends they should be able to be a little bit more honest with each other about how they feel and what they’ve done?

I was also a little bit disturbed about the amount sex going on in this book! I am no prude but these girls are only 16 years old. They are drinking and smoking and having sex. One of them has sex with two different boys at the festival (it was only two days!) I didn’t particularly like either of them TBH but Ruby was the least likeable I think. Perhaps if they had been a bit older it would have been a little more believable. Maybe I am just an old granny who doesn’t understand the world today but I was 16 once believe it or not and I don’t remember it being like this, apart from the cider drinking obviously!

I did like Lauren though, and Owen. Not too keen on Lee either I’m afraid,they felt a little bit like they were the token gay couple and it was a tad forced. All in all a good book but it’s left me a little concerned about the yoof of today….

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs

Thanks to Jodie Lee for recommending this one; it was a little weird! This is also, coincidentally, the second book I have read this summer that has a story and random photos in it. Both books use photographs that the authors have found and intertwined them with the story. At first the technique is a bit strange because how could the author have found photographs that exactly match the story?! But, I read an interview with Ransom Riggs and he explained that he had hunted through thousands of photos to find the ones that would exactly fit the story: clever huh?

So, Jacob lives in America with his mum and dad. His mum is part of a family that have a chain of stores and are incredibly rich. His dad is a part time author and all round not very successful person. He also lives near his Grandad, Abe. When Jacob was little his Grandad used to tell him stories about when he was young. His family were Polish and Abe was sent from Poland to a small island in Wales as an evacuee. He goes to a ‘children’s’ home run by Miss Peregrine. He has some photos of the friends that he made in the children’s home who all have special abilities. Some of the photos are pretty strange but Jacob believes his Grandad and thinks its pretty cool. But as he gets older he starts to realise that the stories Abe told him can’t possibly be true and starts to distance himself from his Grandad and everyone else. He is not exactly Mr Popular and, although he has a job in one of the family stores, his life is not going too well. One day he gets a call from Abe saying that he is being attacked and, thinking that Abe is going crazy but not wanting to be at work, he calls his one and only friend Ricky and they head over to Abe’s house. They find Abe dying in the woods behind the house, and Jacob sees a creature that he cannot explain.

Several trips to the psychiatrist later and Jacob convinces his parents to let him go to the island to investigate the children’s home and get some closure (as the Americans like to call it!). His dad insists on accompanying him and off they go. At first it all seems pretty crazy but the further he investigates to more he finds, including a matching set of photos in an old trunk in the now derelict Home. Then he hears whispering voices and running feet and his adventure begins…

I really liked this book. I made the mistake of watching the trailer for the film and they trying to compare the storyline but I think the film will be really different. Jacob is a bit of a lost soul, which kind of influences his decision making process at the end of the book, but I loved the characters. Emma can create fire, Olive can fly, Enoch can bring things back to life and Bronwyn is the strongest girl at the fair. And Miss Peregrine? Well she’s a shapeshifter of course! The clue is in the name!

This is the first in a series and I will get round to reading the next one at some point. The trick with the photographs really made the story come alive and I’m guessing the film will be spectacular. This also a debut novel and the author works in films so really gets the connection between visual and words spot on. I’d hate to see what his attic is like though, what with all those photographs just waiting to be written about!

Further reading: Sweet Caress by William Boyd (This is the other book and although anything by William Boyd is good, this is really good!)

26/08/201626/08/2016 loociejj fantasy fiction, magic, mythical creatures

A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows – V E Schwab

This is a series and I have read the first two, so for the sake of ease I will review them both in the same section.

Most people only know one London, in this book there are four and Kell who is one of the last Travelers—magicians with a rare ability to travel between parallel Londons – goes between them as a messenger.

There’s Grey London, dirty and crowded and without magic, home to a girl who is scrapping a living together by thieving but who dreams of being the captain of her own pirate ship and ruled by the mad king George III.

There’s Red London, where life and magic are revered and people live under the watchful eyes of the Red King and Queen.

Then, White London, ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne; in this book the evil twins.

But once upon a time, there was Black London… so powerful and deadly that is has been sealed off and not even Kell and Holland, the other Traveler can go there. They are the most powerful magicians left and each has a grudge with the other.

Kell is owned/ adopted by the King and Queen of Red London and is brother to Rhy, a self absorbed prince who always gets his own way. Kell’s two main jobs are to take letters to the rulers of the other Londons and look after Rhy. He is also not allowed to take anything between the worlds, a rule he often breaks. White London is ruled by a sadistic pair of twins who are controlling Holland, who is also their messenger and just as powerful in magic as Kell.

When Kell collides with Lila Bard in Grey London and Rhy is given a gift by Holland, all hell breaks lose. The first book introduces all the main characters and, at some points I was on the edge of my seat because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. Kell and Lila are likeable characters and the sadistic twins in White London made me wince. The elements are also really interesting, and how magic controls each one.

The second book leads directly on from the first so it would be good to read them back to back (I didn’t and I forgot some of the key things that happened!) and is a little reminiscent of the Hunger Games. Red London is hosting the Elemental Games where competitors from all the other lands can compete by showing off their magical skills.

Lila is off on her travels and meets Alucard Emery; who has a connection to the royal family and one in particular which I wasn’t expecting! They are called back to London for the games and Lila reconnects with Kell. The plot has some great twists and Kell and Lila (and their relationship) grows a little more. A character that you think has gone also makes a surprising reappearance with devastating consequences.

Get in to this series, it’s excellent. The author’s knowledge of London is amazing considering she is American, some of the language let’s it down because of this but in general it’s really well written. If you are a fan of fantasy fiction that is a little less soppy then some of the others then this is for you, and by you I mean you Jodie Lee!

Further Reading: The Peter Grant Series by Ben Aaronovitch – these books are fantastic, if a little wacky. The first one is called Rivers of London.

Further further Reading: Department 19 Series by Will Hill – also fantastic (see review of Dept 19 and a review of The Rising to come)

26/08/201626/08/2016 loociejj romance

Billy & Me – Giovanna Fletcher

Billy and Me is on the Zoella recommended reading list at Smiths (thank you Katie for letting me know about this, I hope you’ve read your books over the summer?!) so I got this one and my daughter got The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson and we swapped (review to follow)!

Billy and Me and its sequel Always With Love is about Sophie May, a girl who lives in a small village and works in the local tea shop. Apparently she has a big secret that has burdened her and made her a bit of a recluse, stopping her from going to university or going anywhere really. She reads a lot and one of her favourite books in Pride and Prejudice. She discovers that they are filming an adaptation of the book at the local ‘big’ house and is hoping that Mr Darcy will be played by Jude Law who she has a celeb crush on.

She is lamenting this fact to a cute bloke who has come in for a cuppa when some school girls realise that she is talking to the famous Hollywood actor Billy Buskin and that he must be the one who has got the lead role #awkward

He takes a liking to her and they start seeing each other. She helps him with his lines and he takes her on romantic picnics and life is good until, filming finishes and he needs to get back to London to continue with his swanky lifestyle.

Sophie quickly decides to go with him and moves in to his bachelor pad while he gets the lead role in a play. Sophie misses her mum and her old boss and friend Molly and begins to get jealous of the amount time Billy spends doing actor things. She is pretty insecure and he doesn’t really help the situation. Anyway, things get a bit confused. Sophie May gives up her secret (which doesn’t turn out to be too shocking) and there’s a couple of twists and turns, most notably his horrible manager and the new lead role he gets in a blockbuster film with his gorgeous ex girlfriend.

If you like a good old romance then this is for you. Sophie annoyed me though, she was little too insecure and gave in too easily to keep Billy happy; I hope that women today are little bit more independent then that! The author really does give us a glimpse into what it must be like to be in a relationship with someone that is in the public eye, she is married to Tom Fletcher from Busted after all. Oh, and my daughter loved it and has also read Always with Love, which I now don’t need to read as she kept squealing and giving me spoilers all the way through it!

Also, be ready with tissues at the end, it is a real sobfest! it is also a secret fantasy of us all (go on admit it!) to be swept off our feet by a gorgeous Hollywood actor but it seems that it isn’t always as good as we think when reality kicks in.

Further reading: Always with Love and anything by Giovanna Fletcher and any other soppy romance!

Further watching: An Officer and a Gentleman and Dirty Dancing and probably Pretty Woman too. All the classics!

25/08/201615/06/2017 loociejj friendship, grief, love

One – Sarah Crossan

So, this is it, the Winner of the Carnegie 2016! Finally I have got round to reviewing it. This book is the second book that I have read by Sarah Crossan written in poetry form or free verse. This makes the book flow quite nicely and it feels like you race through it, but in a good way.

Tippi and Grace are conjoined twins and are joined at the torso, this means that it would be extremely difficult to separate them and most of their organs are shared. They have lived at home and been home schooled but have decided that it’s time to join the world and go to Hornbeam high school. There they meet Yasmeen and Jon and the bullying that they expected doesn’t really happen. They start doing all the usual teenage things, bunking off, drinking and smoking etc. and start to feel that they have a place in the world. Tippi even starts to fall in love with Jon and suspects that he feels the same.

The clever thing about this book is that although you know that they are conjoined twins the way the book is written makes you feel as though they are definitely separate characters and, speaking as a twin myself, this is really important. Each one has their own personality.

Grace starts to become ill and there are some tough decisions to make; a road trip with friends and some truths are told. I can’t guarantee you won’t cry at this one either! Well worth reading and a worthy winner but I can’t help feeling that if they book was written in prose it would still have been as hard hitting. My only criticism might be that I would like to have heard from the other characters in the story; what is was like for Jon and how he felt towards the girls; especially how he would have felt about Tippi and her feelings about him. Did he feel the same? Some idea of what it must be like to physically be joined to someone all the time and the problems that must inevitably bring perhaps? Their sister Dragon could also have been explored a bit more.

I enjoy Sarah Crossan’s writing though and would definitely read another.

Further Reading: The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan and, if you really want to push yourselves Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese – this book is a really amazing tale of twins and their connections.

27/06/201615/06/2017 loociejj abuse, friendship, grief, historical, love, Sexuality

Lies We Tell Ourselves – Robin Talley

I thought that this book had won the Carnegie so I told all the students that it had. Then I saw Sarah Crossan on BBC Breakfast and realised that I had made a serious error! Anyway, IMHO this had the potential to win – I really enjoyed it. Well, enjoyed it is perhaps the wrong word. It made me feel angry and ashamed that white people, not very long ago, could treat black people so badly, all for the sake of the colour of their skin.

Lies We Tell Ourselves in the story of Sarah – a black 17 year old girl who lives in America in the 1950s. the book begins with Sarah’s first day at a new school. Her parents wanted Sarah and her sister to be one of the first black students in America to go to a white High School. I had to do a bit research here (as ever) and found out that some schools in the Deep South had closed because the Governor of the State didn’t want the schools to be integrated. Eventually, Congress overruled them and the schools had to be opened. Sarah is in a group of nine black students who are attempting to integrate. I have recently read a book about JFK and Martin Luther King and the work that they did to push integration through Congress so it was interesting to see it from a teenagers POV. What came across was that their parents were fighting for this right for their children but the children themselves really struggled. I have never read a book were the hatred comes across so strongly. The first few chapters where the students are just trying to get into the building and then find their classes were amazing. These kids were spat at, racially and physically abused and derided wherever they went. It is a sad time in American History and, I think, goes some way to explain why they are in the situation they are in today. Remember, this was only 60 years ago.

The added complication is that Sarah has to work on a school project with two girls who are white. One of them is friendly enough (if a little confused) but the other one is Linda, daughter of the town’s most ardent segregationist. She hates Sarah and Sarah hates her – at first. The book is written from both their view points and is an interesting tale of people being told to think something without actually knowing the reason behind it. Linda’s father sounds horrible and she has been brought up to believe that black people are second class citizens who don’t deserve the same education or rights as white people. Sarah is about to blow that all out of the water. As the girls spend more time together they both get more and more confused. Sarah has feelings about girls that she knows are wrong and Linda, well Linda realises that she is attracted to Sarah in a way she cannot explain. This is not a spoiler as it describes it quite accurately on the front of the book!

This book is mesmerising. It is so evocative of the time, and the awful things that black people had to go through just to get the same fair, basic treatment as white people – in their own country. It is another book that should make you feel grateful that you are alive at a time when we have never had more freedom of choice. It should also remind everyone that we have a lot to be thankful for, our battles pale in to insignificance against the wall of hatred and abuse that these kids must have suffered. A powerful book that will make you think.

Further reading – Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett – This is a trilogy starting with Fall of Giants. Well worth a read if you have some time as they are big books but they are really informative and easy to read and will give you lot of information about 20th Century history.

Also, 11.22.63 by Stephen King.

24/06/201615/06/2017 loociejj dystopian fiction, fantasy fiction

The Ghosts of Heaven – Marcus Sedgwick

Another one from the Carnegie Shortlist; this is the first year I have read them all so you all need to hear about them!

At the beginning of the book there is a foreword by Marcus Sedgwick where he says that the book is split in to four different quarters that can be read in any order. All the sections are connected by the central theme of spirals or helix and the Fibonacci spiral – a scientific spiral that has a mathematic principle that occurs again and again in nature. For example, a snail shell has a Fibonacci spiral. I will freely admit that I had to Google some of this stuff as maths has never been my strong point but, the principle exists as an argument for creation as a design by someone rather than things occurring naturally or Creationism.

The first quarter is written in poem form. It is about a girl in Neolithic times who is chosen by the seer of her tribe to help cast magic spells to protect the tribe from danger during their annual hunt. She hasn’t really been chosen as the next seer, she is chosen to carry the equipment up the mountain but it obvious that she has special powers that the seer wants. She isn’t chosen because she is a girl and girls aren’t supposed to know about magical things. While she is up the mountain she sees the destruction of her tribe and she becomes trapped in the cave. she walks into the cave to see if she can find a way out but finds drawings from the tribe that killed her own and a picture of a spiral. She then seems to disappear. The use of poetry means the story is quick and easy to read.

The next quarter sees a girl in 16th century England who’s mother is a healer in her local village and, after her death, the girl is then suspected of being a witch and a witch hunter investigates her. She is accused of bringing about the death of a baby through witchcraft and, her brother, who seems to have epilepsy is said to be possessed. She is put to trial by water and, at the bottom of the water sees a spiral.

In the third quarter we meet a doctor in America who has lost his wife when the boat she is travelling on is sunk. He moves to a lunatic Asylum on an island and takes his daughter with him. There, he meets a man who at first he mistakes for a fellow doctor. He soon realised that the man is in fact a patient at the hospital. This section is set during the end of the 19th century and the treatment of the patients is brutal. The man, it turns out, has a pathological fear of spirals and can only win his freedom if he goes up the huge spiral staircase at the centre of the hospital to meet the cruel warden. He also seems to know a lot of things about the doctor that he couldn’t possibly have known. The doctor likes the man so arranges for him to meet the warden – he manages to make it up the steps but the warden pushes his luck and disaster strikes.

The last quarter is set in the future. The human race is dying and the world government have given the population an opportunity to start a new colony on a planet called New Earth. The only thing is it takes 100 years to get there. They are all put on a ship in statis and are assigned some guards who are woken up every 10 years to check that the ship is all ok. The ship contains 500 hundred people and it is in the shape of a spiral (for aerodynamic purposes). The sentinel Kier Bowman is on his second waking cycle when he realises that some of the 500 are dying. He checks the CCTV and realises that they are being murdered by another sentinel who he cannot see. As the story progresses he realises that the ship and its contents are all based on a lie. Really interesting twist at the end as well.

Of all the parts, I think I enjoyed the one in the lunatic asylum the most. They all fitted together so well but, to me, this one was the most well written. This book is a marvel. It is so so clever, but you don’t really realise how clever it is until it ends and then I was like ‘wow’! Give it a chance, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Further reading : Cloud Atlas and Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (Read Cloud Atlas first) Also Slade House by David Mitchell.