Review: Beautiful Broken Things

Review:

I really don't quite know what to make of this book. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.  I'm not sure what it was that didn't quite work for me. The story of the novel was an interesting one - UK based and set in Brighton so points for being a UK based novel not set in London.

 

 It tells the story of two best friends Caddy, a private school girl and Rosie, her public school BFF and Suzanne, the beautiful new girl who moves to town and comes between the two besties. The public school and private school thing is a big point in the novel.  Caddy goes to a posh school, she’s very intelligent and comes from a well to do family with a social worker type mother who does volunteer work for the Samaritans and a dad who’s a doctor in the hospital. They both have very high expectations for Caddy. Caddy has an older sister Tarin, who is bipolar. Her BFF Rosie she has known for ever had a baby sister who died. These are all big deals to Caddy who calls them Significant Live Events. At nearly 17 not much has happened to her and she really wants it to. She feels dull compared to her sister and Rosie.

 

When I first started reading the novel I found I understood Caddy quite a bit. Caddy is the nice and smart girl with friends who lead much more exciting lives than she does. She parties and drinks, but doesn’t seem to go out as often as Rosie does. Been there, done that. So as a reader it was easy to understand where Caddy was coming from. But the more I read, the more Caddy started to irritate me. Rosie introduces Caddy to her new school friend Suzanne who has moved to Brighton and lives with her Aunt Sarah. Suzanne is pretty, she’s funny and outgoing. And immediately Caddy is jealous, especially since Suzanne and Rosie go to the same school and get to hang out a lot. Again, completely understandable.

 

[spoiler]

At one point Caddy is hanging in Rosie’s room and Rosie has left the room and left her Facebook page open. So Caddy has a snoop and finds the link to Suzanne’s profile (Rosie and Suzanne are Facebook friends, Caddy is not Suzanne’s friend on Facebook).  Caddy sees a conversation in comments between Suzanne and someone about the previous night’s Coronation Street (a British soap opera) and something about trigger warnings in the episode that might upset Suzanne if she watches. Rosie comes back in the room and Caddy can’t snoop anymore. Caddy doesn’t understand what ‘trigger warnings’ are. So she looks it up. And then after finding out she gets suspicious about Suzanna’s reasons for being in town and living with an Aunt and not her parents. So the next day when she’s hanging out with Rosie and Suzanne and some of their friends, Caddy BRINGS UP THE CORONATION STREET EPISODE AND ASKS ABOUT IT KNOWING FULL WELL IT WILL GET A REACTION OUT OF SUZANNE. 

[/spoiler]

 

It was stupid and bordering on cruel. But Caddy, for someone who’s supposed to be smart and nice, doesn’t think twice about this and gets a reaction out of Suzanne. Suzanne is upset and leaves. Caddy does chase after her to apologise. Somehow, after that Caddy and Suzanne become friends.  The novel progresses exploring the friendships between the three girls and the difficulties between the very different personalities. Caddy seems to be dragged along a lot. Suzanne is enigmatic and charming. As it turns out, Suzanne has some pretty dark secrets and a horrible background.

 

Spoilery – but a big part of the novel and something I need to mention.

 

[spoiler]

Suzanne comes from an abusive home, she has been beaten by her father for many years and the rest of her family don’t seem to be doing much to help. Eventually Aunt Sarah stepped in and took Suzanne in. Caddy is naturally horrified when she finds out.  What set off Caddy finding out about all of Suzanne’s history was because she saw her father at a movie theatre and freaked Suzanne out completely. She shuts down. Caddy learns more when she tries to talk to Suzanne a few times and Suzanne is suffering from depression and none of the adults seem to get this. At another point in the story the aunt tries to convince Suzanne to go home for Christmas for family’s sake. The family with the father who has been beating her for years. Because maybe things will be better.  This is from the Aunt who is supposed to be helping make things better?!? Suzanne is “difficult and rebellious” for not wanting to agree to this.

[/spoiler]

 

 Suzanne has a wild party girl persona, doesn’t seem to care about rules or schoolwork or anything. All she wants to do is hang out, have fun and party. Nothing unusual for a teenager. She goes out, drinks, smokes weed and kisses all sorts of boys. Fair enough, again, it’s what kids do.

[spoiler]

But when she breaks off with one boy who treats her terribly, they have a huge fight, Suzanne throws a chair and is suspended. Then later on, Caddy finds her at a party in a deep make out session with the same boy.

[/spoiler]

And doesn’t get it.   Caddy finds herself pulled into Suzanne’s charm and the desire to be more rebellious herself.

 

Which has dramatic consequences for her relationships with Rosie and her parents. Caddy has never broken rules or sneaked out or anything (that her parents know about) before Suzanne came along. Suzanne is branded a bad influence and Caddy is told several times to stay away. Even though Suzanne has horrible circumstances in her life, she’s acting out instead of getting help and no one wants Caddy to drag herself down.

 

Caddy of course is becoming more and more protective and closer with Suzanne as a friend and won’t listen to anyone’s warning. Her own behaviour starts getting a bit worse. Caddy herself is quite happy to go along with the flow. She’s finally doing something exciting and damn the consequences. It’s a sort of amusing look at – well so what if I’m sneaking out and drinking and partying a bit more – parents will yell but the world will still turn.

 

But of course it all goes a step too far and something one night that was supposed to be a bit of midnight fun goes hideously wrong and it’s a wakeup call for everyone.

 

Except for Caddy. Who is a complete idiot by this point.

[spoiler]

Even Suzanne by the end shows some incredible character growth and pulls her head out her ass.

[/spoiler]

Though all Caddy seems to think about is losing her friend. Yes, I can get that she’s sad about that. But that friend’s actions have put Caddy in some serious danger. And there were serious consequences.

[spoiler]

Even Suzanne knows this and has worked towards realising the help she needs and found adults who can provide this.

[/spoiler]

At least the two of them will have their fun memories to look back on and both are very grateful for that.

 

It’s certainly a moving look and friendships and the lengths that teen girls will go to for each other when a close companion is suffering and no grownups seem to understand. Caddy has Suzanne’s back when everyone they know seems to turn against her.  There’s also a very moving author’s note at the end about what inspired the novel and why it’s Caddy’s story and not Suzanne’s. There’s also some very helpful links and addresses for UK teenagers who may be dealing with any number of the series issues raised in the novel.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1350793/review-beautiful-broken-things

Bookish Bingo Spring 2016

New month tomorrow means a new Bookish Bingo card from Pretty Deadly Reviews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haven't done one of these cards in several months and usually when I try one I quite enjoy them. I'm going to give this one a try. 

 

Plans

Usually with most of my challenge cards I try to plan books, sometimes I stick to it, sometimes not. I like to have an idea in mind. 

 

More than One Author - Their Fractured Light Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (hardback)

None Fiction - Yes Please Amy Poehler (paperback)

Stand Alone - The Serpent King Jeff Zenter (netgalley arc)

Non Binary Main Character - 

• Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin (one of the recommended books on the suggestions on the challenge page, I bought this on Kindle a week ago.)
• Second Chance - Lux Beginnings Jennifer L Armentrout (I've technically read both of these on their own but got all the pretty new bind ups ages ago and managed to read the first hundred pages or so but never got much further on a reread so a good excuse to try again) (paperback)
• Criminals - A Gathering of Shadows - Victoria Schwab (or a good reason for a Throne of Glass reread) (paperback)
• Main Character Shares Same Initial - The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman MC's name is Helen, mine Heather so this works. (hardback) 
• Set in two Countries - Anna and the French Kiss Stephanie Perkins (a favourite I have read four or five times already but whatever!) (paperback and kindle)
• Metallic Lettering - Stars Above - Marissa Meyer (hardback)
• Pen Name - Deadline- Mira Grant
• Book towards Another Challenge - Either Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass or Persuasion by Martina Boone. (purple cover square for Story Sprites)
• Set over 200 years Ago - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (kindle)

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1350770/bookish-bingo-spring-2016

Review: A Fierce and Subtle Poison

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I honestly don't quite know what to make of this one. On the one hand, there were lots of things about it I loved - the writing was brilliant, vivid and evocative. The plot was compelling, the mystery was aspect gave an incredible edge to the novel, and the setting and mythology were fantastic. My biggest problem with it was that I just hated the main character, Lucas.

Lucas is the son of a very rich developer dad who's quite happy to tear down beautiful old buildings to make room for new modern hotels. The dad is your typical rich businessman - money focused and doesn't give a crap about the locals. Even when the girl's start going missing and its clear Lucas knows one of them - quite well - the dad is completely indifferent. Where Lucas does make an effort to make friends with some of the local kids, dates the local girls without little thought, immerses himself in the strange mythology he hears about a local legend involving a house on a corner full of strange plants and a witch who lives there who may or may not grant wishes and a mad scientist that once lived there.

But Lucas is also the butt of everyone's anger, when he and his friends get in trouble, he's the one who takes the fall, the police only seem to arrest him. It sounded like, at least to me, a lot of rich white boy problems. Which were more eye roll inducing than anything.

Girls start disappearing, and there's a connection to the strange house and legends surrounding the house. The old ladies of the neighbourhood have plenty of stories to tell to anyone who will listen, warnings about curses, gods and such. Lucas gets quite tangled in trying to solve the mystery and finds himself meeting a strange girl who lives in the house - Isabel. But nothing is what it seems.

There's quite a dark overall tone to the novel, more girls start disappearing and things get more and more twisted, Isabel's world inside the house is strange and she herself has some pretty dark secrets. It's quite twisty turny and the plot is totally unpredictable. The brilliance of the story telling make the novel hard to put down and it was like, I have to know what's going to happen, in spite of the fact I didn't really like any of the characters.

Definitely an author I would read again.

Thank you to Netgalley and Algonquin Young Readers for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1347407/review-a-fierce-and-subtle-poison

DNF: Jane Steele

I received a copy from Netgalley.

This caught my attention simply because of that brilliant line 'Reader, I murdered him'. This isn't usually my type of book, but I really wanted to try it. After trying it, it's hook and premise is definitely an attention grabber. It's excellently written, I am just not that into the story, and at present don't see myself getting much further (this may be because the Kindle formatting from the galley is weird and there are symbols and numbers that break up the text frequently and its making the narrative confusing). I can certainly see myself purchasing a finished copy, maybe to try again at a later date, but at this time, I am just not the right reader for this particular book.

Much appreciation and my thanks to Headline for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1344351/dnf-jane-steele

Mini Reviews

Since a lot of the reviews I've been writing lately seem to be between 1-3 star books, here are some mini reviews for books I've read this year that I've loved.

 

Sanctuary - Jennifer McKissack - 5 Stars - good reads link

Beautiful beatiful book. This tells the story of a young woman returning to her childhood home after being hit by some unfortunate financial circumstances in 1940s America. Trigger warnings for a verbally abusive uncle. But with the hope of a possible romance with a new young man who comes in as a professor interested in the mansion's history and library collection. It's rather bleak and quite a sad story. Involves ghosts and an old family legend as well as a moving look at mental illness in the family. Wonderfully descriptive and very atmospheric.  

 

Fairest (Lunar Chronicles 3.5) 4 Stars 

An interesting take on how Queen Levana became who she is. One hugely fucked up girl. Given her circumstances and what is learned from her history, it's quite understandable how she became the monster she is. Initially I felt quite bad for her at the start of the novel but the more I read, the more twisted Levana's behaviour became. Totally twisted, but kind of addictive as well. I read this in a day. 

 

Very Bad Things - Susan McBride - 4 Stars - Goodreads Link

Prep school mystery with a Life Time Movie feel to it. Tells the story of a girl who finds herself dating the hottest boy in her class, (her roommate and BFF thinks its a terrible idea and makes no secret) the mean girl ex-girlfriend makes constant snotty remarks. Then an X-rated video of the boyfriend and a mystery girl turns up on line. And the girl from the video turns up dead shortly later. Not so brilliant characters, but faced paced and with some great plot twists. Even though it had an I think I've seen this in a movie somewhere feel to it - it was surprisingly unpredictable (even if it did get a bit silly at the the end). A fun read. 

 

 Winter Falls (Twin Willows #1) Nicole Maggi - 4 Stars Goodreads Link

Brilliant YA paranormal romance. I think this is one I came across whilst browning through Amazon at one point and purchased but it sat on my shelf for ages. Picked it up as a possible candidate for a reading challenge and read it in a day. Tells the story of a girl who becomes caught up in a war between two different types of shapeshifters fighting for power. Forbidden romance and of course girl discovers she's a huge part of the battle with new superpowers to learn. Excellently written and some great world building with a unique take on shapeshifters and powers. 

 

Our Lady of The Ice - Cassandra Rose Clark - 4 Stars - Goodreads Link

Scifi/Dystopia with a Noire feel to it!! This is set in a strange world in Antarctica where people live in domes. Chill factor weather wise is a huge deal and there are robots and secret cyborgs. There's a lady detective, a rich widow with a secret, androids, a crime lord, his lackey who's in love with the lady detective. Lots of different plots that twist and intertwine brilliantly. The scifi aspects involving the robots and the technology was a little hard to for me to comprehend but once I got used to the style I really enjoyed the differentness of the novel. Stand alone too, it would appear. 

 

Dumplin' - Julie Murphy - 5 Stars -Goodreads Link

Brilliant brilliant book. I loved everything about this one. I don't think I've ever identified with a character as much as I did with Willowdean Dickinson, particularly as a large plus sized person myself. If only they had had body positive books like this when I was in school.  Brilliant voice, brilliant writing. And character flaws too! Not everything is perfect and in spite of the funny bits, it was quite angsty and painful in parts. Very moving. Very good.  

 

Sword and Verse - Kathy McMillan - 5 Stars - Goodreads Link

Beautifully written fantasy. This one made me cry by the end. Tells the story of Raisa, who is a slave in a palace, who finds herself in the precarious position of Tutor in a world where written language is only for the Royals (the prince and the king) as dictated by the gods. Really fascinating mythology and creation myths. While the plot is very slow and practically non existent until well over half way through what I liked about this was seeing the more every day side of life as Raisa struggles with her position and her loyalties. There is (of course) a forbidden romance and a rebellion. Nothing that is highly different than a thousand other fantasy novels. But I did find the writing style and world building quite unique. In spite of a slow plot, and insta-love, it was a really good read. Another one that I finished in a couple of hours after getting past the first 100 pages.

 

The Radiant Road - Katherine Catmull - 5 Stars Goodreads Link 

This is one of those odd books (at least for me) that falls somewhere between middle grade and YA. The main character, Clare, is 14 years old, and while she deals with some issues in a very mature way, in other times, she behaves like a child. So its hard to say YA or older middle grade. Either way, it was a fantastic book. It involves a strange and interesting take on faeries and changlings. Clare is the guardian of a link between the two worlds. She has to protect her link from a villain who wants to destroy the fairy gates. This is one of the weirdest most convoluted books I have ever read. I barely had a clue what was going on. In spite of that, it was still brilliant. Beautifully written in an odd, almost dream like way. Fantastically original take on fae lore, fascinating world building and incredible characters. Weird but brilliant. 

 

Some Girls Bite (Chigacoland Vampires #1) Chloe Neill 5 Stars

Delightfully cheesy urban fantasy. Another one I've had on my shelves for ages. Finally started on a whim. And ended up loving it. Has everything I look for in urban fantasy - kick ass snarky heroine. BFF with a great roll that's more than just a funny side kick. Hot potential love interest. Great world building and a mystery aspect to solve as well. Dialogue was witty and on the ridiculous side, but as the novel progressed the tension built and the plot picked up. Sets up the scene wonderfully. Really looking forward to some more in this series. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1341415/mini-reviews

DNF: Tell The Wind and Fire

Review:

The sad moment when you have to DNF something you've been really looking forward to.

I have been really excited for Tell The Wind and Fire for what seems like ages now. I put in a wish request months ago when the title first popped up on Netgalley. Then jumped at the chance when one of those Feed Your Reader emails turned up in my in box and started reading immediately.

Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion, that at 45% in, as utterly gorgeous as that cover is, and as beautiful as the writing is...I just don't like the story. The novel is boring. Almost half way through and despite one or two things happening it seems like I am still waiting for the plot to get going. As original as the concept of the two Dark and Light cities and magic is, I simply can not get my head around the world building. It makes very little sense to me at all. I found the first 20% to be full of info dumping. I don't like the characters either, Lucie I found irritating, Ethan flat and uninteresting and Carwyn's snippiness and sarcasm is getting very tiring very fast. I've come to the conclusion I really just don't care about what happens to any of them.

As much as I was looking forward to the book, I really just have no interest in finishing. So sadly, it's a DNF for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Clarion Books for the review copy.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1340269/dnf-tell-the-wind-and-fire

Review: Finding Hope

Review:

This was a bit of coverlust that made me select this one when I saw it on Netgalley. It's a a short read, it took me just under and an hour and a half to finish it, it's a rather sad story. Unfortunately,I didn't like it. It wasn't terribly written or anything. It had some fairly moving bits, but I just did not like it. 

 

If the story had been just from Hope's POV, I would have probably liked it more as she was much easier to identify with, and I could understand her. My biggest issue was the POV of the drug addicted brother, Eric. By the time the reasons for his descent into drugs was finally revealed I was so disgusted with his character I had no sympathy for him at all. Completely overshadowed by his appalling behaviour. Which I am well aware was the result of his meth addled mind and the deep seated addiction that had destroyed him and turned him into a horrible mess. Just didn't twig at me at all. While Hope on the other hand, her story was a lot more sympathetic even though she does some truly truly stupid things. 

 

Hope's still supporting her brother, even though her parents have kicked him out (trying a tough love approach) but she's still leaving him food and money. She has the chance to escape and reinvent herself at a posh boarding school a few hours from where she lives. She attracts the attention of a pack of mean girls who pretend to befriend her. Hope is struggling to fit in and decide what type of person she wants to be. But it's not easy to fit in with the mean girls who want her to do something horrible in order to fit in and be part of the group.

 

Hope escapes through poetry, which come to her at random times and she scribbles down in notepads. I don't get poetry at all, and usually poetry filtered into novels tends to be quite irritating but I quite liked how Hope's words fit in with the tone and the mood of the novels and allowed her to express herself when she couldn't find the words to say out loud. Hope gets an email at some point in the story from a boy at the neighbouring boy's school who says he's on their welcoming committee. They strike a spark and seem to get on really well through cute little email exchanges. 

 

Big spoiler but Hope's actions are so stupid here I need to have a little rant. 

 

[spoiler]

Of course, it all goes wrong and Hope is devastated. He wants her to do something to win him back. This is all after Eric has shown up at the school pestering Hope for money and people (mean girls included, she's fallen out with them by this point) because he knows she will have his back and provide the cash he needs. Hope sends the guy she's been emailing nude pictures. She sends him nude pictures. How fucking stupid can you get? She's hoping he'll see her as sexy and strong and forgive him. Which again goes hideously wrong. And she's bullied relentless by the mean girls and evidence of the photos keep popping up. On top of that, she's got her drug addicted brother to deal with.

[/spoiler]

 

It's getting to the point where so many things are going wrong for both Hope and Eric it's more eye rolling than anything else. It's such a short book, it felt like so much thrown in and then a rush to wrap it all up. Hope finally takes charge of her mistake and does something about it,.

 

[spoiler]

And Eric finally confronts his demons, but nothing quite goes according to plan he's decided to follow, but at least by the end he winds up in rehab with a second chance at connecting with his family. Hope stands up for herself and gets help in dealing with her own problems and is more than happy Eric's getting help as well. So it was quite a hopeful ending for a rather bleak story. 

[/spoiler]

It's sort of hard to put a finger on exactly what it was I didn't like, as there were some parts I certainly did like. I thought the writing and story telling did show a lot of promise and I would certainly read something by this author again.

 

Thank you Netgalley and Dundurn publishers for approving my request to view the title. 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1335707/review-finding-hope