The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower follows fifteen year old Charlie through a year of his life. He hasn’t really been making friends at school and has gone through some tough times recently with the death of his aunt Helen and his brother moving away to college. He makes friends with Sam and Patrick who are the same age as his older sister. Sam and Patrick introduce Charlie to their friends and with them Charlie experiences new things such as alcohol, drugs and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Throughout the novel Charlie reads twelve books given to him by his English teacher and these have an influence on him, as well as the new things he goes through. It’s a coming of age book in the same vein as a novel like The Catcher in the Rye.

I thought I would like Charlie as he is a nice guy, a bit shy and very intelligent. He also escapes into books which I can relate to. However, there was something not quite right about the way he is written. There are various things that have happened to Charlie that could account for this but for me it affects how realistic the book feels. Charlie is immature for his age and cries a lot. It’s difficult to imagine him having friends his own age, let alone friends older than him. I just can’t see him being accepted into the group as one of them. He does get more mature as the book goes on though. The characters of Sam and Patrick felt more real to me and it may have been a better book if it focused on them more. Sam has trouble with finding the right guy and Patrick is gay but the boy he loves isn’t as open as him which frustrates Patrick.

The book is written in the form of letters. It’s not clear who it is that Charlie is writing to, or if you would be able to work it out from reading the book a few times. To begin with the letters aren’t very complex but as Charlie’s English teacher helps him improve his writing through setting him essays, Charlie’s letters get better written. This is a nice touch and I think that would happen in reality if someone saw potential in you and encouraged you. My problem with the way the book is written is that I’m not sure Charlie is the most reliable narrator and it might have been nice to get things from a different person’s point of view. I think Charlie’s unreliability may be intended to add a certain charm to the book. In some ways it does and some ways it doesn’t.

The book deals with a lot of issues all at once and, being less than 250 pages, this is a big ask. It has sex, drugs, alcohol, mental health and abuse in it. It sort of felt like an episode of Skins, where it is a twisted, overly romanticised vision of what it is to be a teenager. To be fair, a lot of teenagers feel able to relate to Charlie but I don’t know how many of them would go out and get drunk and take drugs a lot. I get that Charlie is an outsider and everyone feels like that at some point in their lives until they find a group of friends that is like them and they don’t feel so alone. Really, this is enough of a story; it doesn’t need all the embellishments to make it more dramatic. It’s just over the top.

I didn’t like this book as much as I wanted to; I think I’m probably too old. This book and Looking for Alaska by John Green felt quite similar to me. I’m not sure why we can’t have a contemporary teenage novel that doesn’t have drugs and alcohol in it. Obviously yes a lot of teenagers do experiment with that kind of thing but that’s not true of everyone. I suppose it makes the book more exciting but it also glamorises it and it just feels like an easy plot device that lacks imagination. The book would have been a lot better if Chbosky had just stuck with the theme of abuse and gone with that, rather than feeling like he had to throw everything into the book.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

The Sisters Brothers are essentially hired killers in America in 1851. Eli and Charlie Sisters are employed to find a man named Hermann Kermit Warm and kill him. Their friend Henry Morris has been sent on ahead to scout out where Warm is and what his habits are. It turns out Warm has headed to California for the gold rush so the Sisters brothers must follow him there. Along the way they meet a colourful cast of characters and must try and survive long enough to get to their destination. Eli, the narrator, begins to question what they do for a living and whether they should be hanging up their pistols. Charlie has no such thoughts and Eli, being the younger, sort of goes along with Charlie all the while trying to assess his life and what it means.

I enjoyed spending time in Eli’s head and was interested in his inner conflict of wanting to give up his job but not wanting to leave his brother. Charlie would not have been a good narrator as he is drunk a lot of the time and isn’t fully aware of what’s going on around him. He is very alert when he needs to be and can’t be beaten in a gun fight. Eli doesn’t have a killing instinct to the same degree as Charlie but you still don’t want to mess with him. In another era, Eli would have been a really nice guy and may have been able to leave a double life, with a wife and kids but leaving on ‘business trips’ to go and kill people. Even in this era he’s a nice guy, just confused.

I wasn’t sure about reading this book to begin with. The first chapter is about the brothers’ horses and had the rest of the book been like that I probably wouldn’t have continued. I haven’t seen or read any westerns because I didn’t think I would find any interest in them. This one was a nice read. It wasn’t too focused on being a western and had a lot more to it. There was some psychology stuff and plenty of action. I was able to get into the world fairly easily but I couldn’t manage to really enjoy being in the world.

I think it helped that the book was nicely written and didn’t take very long to read. The book is split into three parts with a couple of intermissions. I didn’t really understand the point of the intermissions and whether they were real or some sort of dream sequence or something. As the book has an element of mystery in it, you have the build up, the journey and the conclusion. This worked well too as it is a familiar formula to most readers so it is something else that helps ease you in to the world of the western. I don’t imagine it can really be called a western in the true sense of the word but it certainly gives you a taste of it.

The book was better than I expected but I didn’t feel a big connection to it. I did find myself liking Eli and enjoying his struggle. I can understand why this book gained award attention when it first came out because it’s so different to most other books out there. Except, when you look at what it’s actually about, it’s not that different really; it just has an unusual setting. I’m not really sure what to rate this book as it was really good but I just can’t bring myself to give it four stars. I’d be interested to see what this author writes next as it should be interesting. I would recommend people give this book a chance and not dismiss it because of what it appears to be.

Overall rating 3.5 out of 5.

The Skin Map by Stephen R Lawhead

Kit meets his great-grandfather, Cosimo in an alley in London. He finds out that Cosimo uses ley lines to travel through time and dimensions. Kit also has this ability. His girlfriend, Mina, doesn’t believe him so he takes her through to another dimension. Except, as he doesn’t know what he’s doing, she ends up in Prague in 1606. There she meets Etzel and together they set up the first coffee shop in Prague. Kit, meanwhile, is with Cosimo and his friend Sir Henry. In order to try and work out where Mina is they must get the Skin Map. This was made by a man named Arthur Flinders-Petrie who also travelled like them. He made a map of where ley lines were and where they went in tattoos on his skin. After he died his skin was made into a map. However, there is also a man named Burleigh who is after the map, and so after Kit and Cosimo.

I really liked the sound of this book when I read the blurb on the back. I am a sucker for a good time travel novel. As with every time travel book, there are rules to the travel. In this case, you cannot travel to the future, only the past. This is fine because there is plenty of past to go to and plenty of parallel universes to visit. In this book you go to England, Prague and Egypt. You spend a lot of time in Prague with Mina but I think Egypt could have done with a bit more description. I couldn’t really picture where they were.

As usual, there were characters I liked and characters I didn’t. Unfortunately one of the characters I didn’t like was Kit and he is essentially the main character. He is supposed to be an adult but just acts like a child. To begin with I wasn’t sure about Mina but I really liked her towards the end and can’t wait to see how she develops in the next book. Cosimo was a fun character to read; he’s just a fun old guy who doesn’t take things too seriously, even when he is in serious danger. I’m interested to learn more about the baddy, Burleigh. It’s not clear what his agenda is and what exactly he wants from Cosimo. So far he is not nice at all so hopefully he will be a formidable opponent for Mina, Kit and their friends.

The writing style is okay; I felt it improved as the book went on and I was more engaged with the characters. Okay is pretty much how I felt about the whole book up until the last chapter. It ends with the reader asking a lot of questions, which I suppose you need to read the nest book to find out. There was also an epilogue with a teaser for some new characters in the sequel. Half way through I didn’t think I would be continuing the series. Now, provided we have less from Kit’s perspective and more girls kicking butt, I’m going to have to read the second. This is a planned five part series, so we’ll see how it goes as to whether I’ll be reading the whole series.

It was an alight read but nothing that special for me. It’s not very long so if you wanted a quick read I think you would enjoy it. It might also be a good read for teenagers wanting to get into adult books as it is part of a series and it’s easy to read. I have read better time travel books but it certainly could have been a lot worse.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Wonderstruck is two stories in one. Ben is from a remote town in America in 1977. His mother has recently died and he has moved in with his aunt, uncle and cousins. One stormy night he is looking through his mother’s things and finds a book called Wonderstruck. In it is a bookmark to his mother from a man. He wonders if this man is his father and so decides to investigate. The only problem is that it would appear that his father lives in New York, which is miles away. There is also the fact that he has recently become deaf, following an accident and can neither sign nor read lips. The other story is told entirely through pictures and is set just outside New York in 1927. It follows Rose, a deaf girl, who isn’t allowed to do things by herself but really wants to explore the city just outside her doorstep. Throughout the book their stories merge and become one big story.

Ben is only young but so much has happened to him already. You can’t help but want to be his friend so he has someone to talk to and hang out with. When something life altering, like suddenly not being able to hear anything, happens to you it’s going to take a while to adjust. At first Ben tries to ignore it, but he finds that just isn’t possible. He needs to be able to communicate. Ben is both brave and cowardly. He decides to run away and look for his dad instead of dealing with problems at home but he isn’t scared to go around New York by himself. Rose is not the happiest child although she enjoys spending time with her brother, who seems to understand her best. She’s very creative and has lots of potential if only her parents could see past her being deaf.

The book is approximately one third written novel and two thirds graphic novel / picture book. Ben’s story is told through words, Rose’s through pictures. The two mediums are blended together seamlessly; allowing you to have cliff-hangers in the two stories when the author switches between the two. The written part has just the right amount of description and inner thought. The pictures convey inner thoughts through facial expressions but it’s the detail of the city that captures your imagination. Selznick is an incredible artist. You don’t need any words to know what’s going on and how the characters feel.

I really enjoyed this book, and although it’s over six-hundred pages it doesn’t take long to read. I really felt connected to both main characters and the ending just ties it all up nicely. It’s not the happiest of books as both have struggles to overcome, so the end makes it all the more touching. This would have been an excellent story had it been just words but the pictures just bring it to life so, at least for Rose, you don’t need to picture what she looks like. Selznick did a lot of research in to this book and I’d like to think that if I ever went to the American Museum of Natural History, I’d be able to picture Ben and Rose being there too. I think adults and children can enjoy Selznick’s work and would urge everyone to try one of his novels.

Overall rating 5 out of 5.

Reading Wrap Up July 2013

These are the books I read in July

The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky  --  3 / 5

Rumo by Walter Moers  --  5 / 5

The Silver Linings Play Book by Matthew Quick  --  4 / 5

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion  --  4 / 5

The Cutting Room by Jilliane Hoffman  --  4 / 5

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch  --  4 / 5

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde  --  4 / 5

Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

Tell the Wolves I’m Home looks at how fourteen year old June copes with the death of her uncle Finn, her mother’s brother. Finn was an artist and painted June and her older sister Greta before he died. June was very close to her uncle, she feels like she is in love with him. After he dies from AIDS, she discovers there was a lot that she didn’t know about him, that her mother kept from her. The biggest shock is that he had a partner, Toby who he has been with for nine years. At first June doesn’t want to know him as she doesn’t want to share her uncle or think about the fact that he loved someone more or just as much as her. She agrees to meet him and he turns out to be a way to keep her uncle alive.

The book is set in the 1980s, which was a time when AIDS was a death sentence; there were no drugs to help you cope. Anyone who had AIDS was treated like a leper as people didn’t know how you contracted AIDS so were overly cautious and wouldn’t go near anyone who was known to have it. Although, it wasn’t that long ago, there is a significant lack of technology. There was no internet, so not every household had a computer and there were no mobile phones. Some of the things that happen in the book wouldn’t have worked as well had that technology been available. It couldn’t have been set today as AIDS is no longer a death sentence. It is set recently enough that the world is recognisable and relatable.

The relationships between the characters are what really make this book what it is. The relationship between June and Toby is touching as they are trying to keep the memory of Finn alive and trying to cope with his death at the same time. June is reluctant to let Toby in to begin with but comes to rely on his friendship. She needs him as her relationship with her sister Greta is spiralling out of control. Greta seems to enjoy hurting June and getting into her personal belongings. They used to be very close but have drifted apart and June doesn’t know if they can fix it. Greta is the star of the school play and feels pressure from their parents to do well. She starts drinking and June worries that she’ll go too far. It takes Greta being brought home by the police for them to start repairing their relationship and talking to each other again.

The title doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with the book, but the June realises towards the end that the wolves are the shameful and embarrassing feelings that we have and we need to not run away from them. June has a lot to deal with throughout the book and at times she’s not sure that she’ll make it through. It’s the love that she feels for others and that others feel for her that help her. She tries to keep all elements of her life separate and you just can’t live like that; it’s too many things to juggle at once. She’s much happier at the end of the book than at the start.

I was a bit unsure of June for much of the book; I wasn’t sure I liked being in her head. However, as events started to come to a head it was fun to see how she coped with that. I did feel a connection to June and understood her motivations. Her parents don’t have the easiest jobs and the girls are often left to fend for themselves. This means June is more mature than the average fourteen year old but not as mature as she thinks she is. I picked the book because of the title and am glad I did. There aren’t any wolves in the book but there are plenty of demons that need exorcising. The family are stuck in a rut and need the events that unfold to bring them back together. I enjoyed the book and feel I understand people a bit better.

Overall rating 4 out of 5.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help tells the story of a group of black maids and the white women they work for in a small town in Mississippi. Aibileen works with a family with a young child. She’s very good with children and always tries to emphasize to the children that skin colour is not important. Her own son has died recently and she’s found herself in a rut. Minny has trouble keeping a job as she keeps talking back to her employers. She also did something awful to the daughter of her last employer that got her fired and saw she wouldn’t get a job in the town. Luckily, there is a lady who has recently moved to the town and Minny manages to convince her to employ her. Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan has returned home after graduating from college to find her old maid gone. She wants to know why. She gets to thinking about the differences between the black and white people in her town. When she discovers Aibileen’s son was going to write about this topic before he died, she decides to take up his project. Being white, Skeeter must convince the maids to help her. At first, only Aibileen agrees.

Aibileen is definitely my favourite character; she is an amazing person and a pillar of her community. She is always eager to help others and never puts herself first. She enjoys looking after the children that she does, but not so much their parents. Minny relies on Aibileen a lot. Minny’s husband beats her regularly and she has five children to look after. I admire the character of Minny because she won’t take any nonsense and says exactly what she thinks; there’s no half measures. Skeeter dreams of being a journalist but that isn’t likely to happen while she’s still in Mississippi. She feels she can’t move as her mother has cancer and is very ill. The idea for the book comes along at just the right time for her. Hilly is the leader of the young women of the town. They all follow her example and do as she says. And Hilly hates coloured people.

It’s difficult to fathom the extent to which segregation changed the way people went about their business and what they did. Having more than one toilet because if the maid uses the toilet it is ‘dirty’ and the white family can’t use it. It’s really quite arbitrary what is and isn’t acceptable. The white people have no qualms about the black maids washing their clothes or cooking their food, yet won’t eat in the same room or shop in the same grocery stores. It’s a ridiculous concept and makes no sense. Yet the black people had no power to speak up against it.

The book is told from the point of view of Aibileen, Minny and Skeeter. Each character has a separate personality and each is engaging to listen to. The way the two maids are written is the way they would speak and that adds to the feel of the book. I found myself really connecting to all of the narrators and wanting everything to work out for them and for them to be happy. While reading it I was so drawn in to the story that I didn’t mind, but now I think it would have been interesting to have a couple of chapters inside Hilly’s head. To see if there is a reason she is the way that she is and has the views that she does.

This book was amazing and fascinating. The fifties seems to be a new area of interest for me. I also like books where you learn things without realising. This is one of those books; it tells you so much about the history of Southern America. It felt very real, which it obviously was but it’s almost like reading a biography rather than fiction. I would recommend this book to everyone. It’s written in a way that is easy to read and makes you think. I had seen the film a long time before I read the book, but from what I remember the film was a reasonable adaptation. A must read book.

Overall rating 5 out of 5.

The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan

The Thirty-nine Steps tells the story of spies in the run up to the fist World War. Richard Hannay has moved to Britain from South Africa and, having been there a couple of months is very bored. Luckily, the man in the flat above him has secret information about European politics and is being chased by some German and British spies. His neighbour tells Hannay what he knows and says he must reveal what he knows at the correct time. The neighbour gets killed and Hannay must go on the run. He goes to Scotland where he is helped by locals to avoid his pursuers. He survives by sheer luck and travels to London to deliver his information. Together they set up an operation to catch the spies before they can escape.

Richard Hannay is a fun character to spend time with. He’s pretty savvy and uses disguises and the help of others to avoid those who are after him. He’s a bit reminiscent of James Bond but has to rely on instinct rather than being told what to do. All the characters he meets along the way are nearly all nice and willing to help. They, like Hannay, are happy for a bit of excitement in their lives and will probably dine out on the story for a while after. The baddies are masters of disguise and incredibly clever. As much as Hannay does to try and confuse him, they manage to figure out where he is and come straight after him. The only thing I had a problem with was that there were no female characters. There doesn’t seem to be a particular reason for this; perhaps it was the time it was written or it may be that Buchan was only writing for a male audience.

The book is very short, only 112 pages, but there is a lot crammed in to that space. Each chapter is its own little story; he meets someone new in each one who either helps or hinders him. The exceptions are the last couple of chapters when Hannay is back in London, which builds up to the finale. I could vividly picture the Scottish countryside that is the setting for most of the book. It’s a dramatic landscape to go with the drama unfolding which is a nice connection. There was plenty of description in Scotland but not so much in London so that was more difficult to picture. I think this was partly because Buchan spent more time in Scotland than England. To a certain extent, the main character takes some autobiographical points from Buchan himself.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book but I really did. The fast pace of the book made you want to keep reading. A problem I did have with the plot a bit is that I didn’t really understand what significance the secrets had and who exactly was after Hannay and why. But I don’t think that mattered too much as the important thing was that he was on the run alone and several people were chasing him so the odds weren’t in his favour. Despite being written one hundred years ago, the language is quite modern and easy to understand; so this would be a good classic to start with. The ending is unresolved so you the reader has to decide what happened and how it affected the grand scheme of things when World War One occurred anyway. This is a quick, fun read and I’d be curious to read some of the others in the series to see what topics he covers.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.

Small Island by Andrea Levy

Small Island follows the lives of four people before, during and after the second world war. Gilbert was born in Jamaica, the eldest of eight children. He is well educated and would like to become a lawyer. This changes when he volunteers for the RAF and goes to England to fight. After the war he has to return to Jamaica but quickly moves back to England and gets a job with Royal Mail. Queenie is born in England to a butcher father and mother. She gets taken to London by her aunt so Queenie can help in her shop. Her aunt dies and Queenie marries Bernard to have stability in her life. She is alone during the war and looks after Bernard’s father. She rents rooms out to soldiers. One of them is a Jamaican that she takes a liking to. After the war she continues to rent out rooms including one to Gilbert. Hortense was born in Jamaica where she trains to be a teacher. She marries Gilbert after knowing him for a few weeks because she wants to move to England. She follows him to England once he has moved in to Queenie’s house. Bernard was born in England and goes to fight the war in India.

The book switches from 1948 to before 1948. As each character gets introduced, at an appropriate point, you learn about their past. For some characters that takes more than one flashback. Having the immediate contrast between the two time periods helps show the impact of war and how long it takes for things to get back to some kind of normal. The time changes are carefully chosen and come along to answer your questions just when you need them. The two locations are vivid too and you can picture exactly what’s going on. Not being familiar with what villages and towns are like in Jamaica, that was more difficult to picture. But even if you can’t see it, you definitely feel the difference between Jamaica and England.

All four of the main characters were really well written and I felt I understood them. Gilbert and Queenie seemed more savvy whereas Hortense and Bernard seemed a bit more naive. It is a very big culture shock for Hortense as the British people she knew in Jamaica were more upper class and I think Hortense was sort of expecting everyone to be like that. She is determined not to let people visibly get to her despite the way she and other black people are treated. India is a culture shock for Bernard and he really doesn’t like it. It’s very much an us and them vibe with the British soldiers and the Indian natives. All of these interactions between cultures is interesting.

I was a bit worried to begin with as this is an award-winning book and that can mean they are difficult to read and a bit pretentious. This book was none of those things. The writing style was easy to fall in to and I just wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. When the point of view changed it tells you at the start of the chapter but they are all so distinct that you knew who’s head you were in immediately. Not being a particularly plot-driven novel, there was just the right amount of description to character interaction.

I really enjoyed this book which surprised me a little bit. I enjoy novels set around the war that focus on what it was like for those left at home. This delivered in that but also introduced me to the topic of what it was like for immigrants coming over at that time. Everyone would have been suspicious of new people because that had been their mind set for years. Despite not having segregation we sort of did unofficially as far as a lot of people were concerned. Racism is a fascinating topic because for some it is just ignorance and an unwillingness to learn about other people rather than any actual hatred towards those of a different race. I’d certainly like to read more of Andrea Levy’s books and would recommend Small Island to everyone.

Overall rating 5 out of 5.

Reading Wrap Up June 2013

These are the books that I read in June

Small Island by Andrea Levy  --  5 / 5

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan  --  3 / 5

The Help by Kathryn Stockett  --  5 / 5

The Dalek Project (Dr Who) by Justin Richards & Mike Collins  --  3 / 5

Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt  --  4 / 5

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick  --  5 / 5

The Skin Map by Stephen R Lawhead  --  3 / 5

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt  --  3 / 5

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

Nicholas Nickleby tells the story of Nicholas and his family and friends. His father dies and he must now support his mother and sister, Kate. They travel to London to seek the help of his father’s brother Ralph. This does not go quite as planned because Ralph is not a nice person and only cares about money and himself. Things do not get off to a good start when they accept Ralph’s advice and help and only encounter vile people. When they surrender themselves to fate events take a turn for the better and they meet merchants and philanthropists the Cheeryble twins, Charles and Ned. They help the Nicklebys and their lives get much better. Thanks to the Cheerybles the Nicklebys don’t need to rely on Ralph and Nicholas and his sister even find themselves spouses. It’s a happy ending for most that deserve it and an unhappy one for most of those who don’t.

All the characters are well rounded and it feels as if you know them and know how they’re going to react to something before they do. It’s obvious which characters you’re supposed to like and which ones you aren’t and for the majority of them, this was exactly how I felt. I didn’t connect with any of the characters really as they were all a bit plain. Really, we needed the villains to mix things up a bit. I found myself taking against Mrs Nickleby. She is very self-centred and always needs to be the centre of attention, much like Mrs Bennet in Pride & Prejudice. There are a lot of minor characters and may be there mostly to break up the tension and provide some comic relief. None of them stood out for me, they were all just a bit boring.

The plot of the book dragged a bit for me. We didn’t really need to know the fates of all the minor characters. I do enjoy Dickens’ storytelling but, not knowing an awful lot of history, can’t tell which bits are social commentary and which are pure fiction. This is Dickens’ first novel where romance features heavily and it’s not easy to do and avoid offending people. It’s a sensitive subject, especially back then. The end result feels a bit Shakespearean to me; all the characters end up getting married and you can tell who Nicholas and Kate are going to marry. At some points I found it a bit confusing, when Ralph was conspiring against people but I think as long as you got the gist it was okay. It was a nice story and leaves you with a bittersweet feeling.

I love a bit of Victorian England which is possibly why I like Dickens so much. His descriptions of places let you picture them and feel the atmosphere. I certainly wouldn’t want to live there but spending a couple of weeks there via a book is about right. London life hasn’t really changed in two hundred years; it’s still chaotic and on top of itself but somehow gets by. Dickens London is smaller and more manageable so is slightly easier to get your head around where everything is. The centre of London is overcrowded with whole families living in a couple of rooms. When Nicholas moves to the outskirts he gets to live in a nice cottage, which I like.

I didn’t like this book as much as the other two I’ve read but still enjoyed it. I think some of it may be due to Dickens trying a new genre and working out how to tell the story as he wants to. For me the ending made up for parts of the book that were difficult to get through. Although you’re supposed to route for Nicholas, I found myself wanting things to turn out for Kate Nickleby. She has to put up with so much from her mother, her uncle and men wanting to court her that she has no interest in. When Frank appeared I was hopeful for her future. I found myself drawn into their lives and wanting the best for them. Even if Mrs Nickleby annoyed the hell out of me.

Overall rating 4 out of 5.

Wonder by R J Palacio

Wonder is about ten year old August Pullman who has a severe facial disfigurement. Due to this he has had to have various operations throughout his short life and so has never been to school. His mum has always taught him at home. This year everything changes. This year August goes to school. The book follows him the summer before school and his first year of school. Understandably, August is terrified, but he’s also a bit excited at the same time. Mostly he dreads the way the other children and the teachers will react to him. He gets stared at everywhere he goes; even if people aren’t being rude about it, they can’t help but look.

I enjoyed the character of August. He is determined to have as normal a life as possible. He’s not disabled, he just looks different. Inside he’s just a regular kid, except he’s not really because he’s never been treated totally normal. Even his parents, who try to treat him the same as his sister, can’t. In the beginning it was for medical reasons and now it’s to try and protect him from the reactions of strangers. Having said that though, August and his family are pretty cool. They obviously all love each other a great deal and that is nice to read about.

The way that he is treated by his classmates and teachers felt realistic. To begin with no one will sit with him and the head teacher has asked a few pupils to keep an eye on him and to befriend him. Some are happy to do this, others not so much. That’s the way it is with all schools though, when you have so many different people together; someone is going to get singled out for a reason and someone else is going to do the singling out. They weren’t all portrayed as full-on bullies either, al lot of them were just indifferent and pretty much ignored August which felt more real.

I expected the book to be completely written from August’s point of view but it covers six different characters’ perspectives. They are all connected to August in different ways so it’s interesting to see how and why they’ve found themselves in the circle of protection around him that his parent’s started. It feels like the author really got inside the characters’ heads as the voices sound right for the different ages and genders. It’s not easy to write from a child’s outlook and I think she did well with this. There were quite a few pop culture references peppered throughout the book, some of which I got and others I didn’t. For some reason adding these little bits lets you relate to them easier and feel like you’re in the story.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It was brilliant. I liked all the people I supposed to and disliked all those I wasn’t. I think it gives an important message about tolerance and treating others with kindness. The children in the book are more accepting than the adults, except those with very narrow-minded parents and I think how parents react has a massive effect on how their offspring react. This isn’t just a book for children and teens; this is a book for adults too. My only problem with the book was that it felt a bit Disney. I can easily see this being made into a film and the ending felt too perfect for my liking. However, this didn’t detract that much from the rest of the story and I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Overall rating 4 out of 5.

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Hush, Hush follows Nora Grey as she gets partnered with the new student in her Biology class. She doesn’t know anything about him and their first assignment for the class is to get to know your partner. Somehow he seems to know quite a bit about her already. Nora finds out very little about Patch as he isn’t forthcoming about himself. She finds herself drawn to him but can’t get to know him as she is busy trying to figure out who is following her and possibly trying to kill her. Together with her best friend Vee, Nora sets out t find out what’s going on.

I found the story to pretty much be a Twilight rip off with a different supernatural being than vampires. I was worried that this was what it was going to be but I hoped those fears would be unfounded. No such luck. From what I’ve seen, there aren’t a lot of well-known books about fallen angels so this could have been a different take on them. I don’t know if there are any abilities that angels have or ones they don’t have which leaves room for invention and the fallen angels could have been pretty awesome. Instead they were exactly the same as the vampires in Twilight.

I didn’t find myself connecting with any of the characters, I couldn’t find a depth to any of them which was frustrating. Nora didn’t have any consistency throughout the book. One minute she was terrified of Patch, the next moment she wanted to kiss him. Maybe being scared does something for her, I don’t know. She just kept making the same mistakes over and over again, never learning from any of the experiences. Vee started off as a decent character but after a bit she just turned in to another Nora, acting the same way. The character of Patch could have been so amazing. There was a little prologue and I can’t help but think that the book would have been better if Patch had been the protagonist and we followed his life as a fallen angel.

The writing style made it easy and quick to finish this book which is one positive about it. There was not enough description of the places for me to picture where they were and their location in relation to the rest of the town. I could, however, give you a very accurate description of Patch’s eyes and body as they are frequently mentioned throughout. It’s mostly dialogue with a change of scene every so often. I need a bit more than that from my books.

I think this book would appeal to fans of Twilight but I couldn’t relate to any of it. I started it with no expectations so luckily there weren’t any that needed to be met as I fear this book would not have done so. To be fair to the author I don’t think this was aimed at me so it’s not a surprise I didn’t like it. The simplistic writing style making it easy to read may encourage people who don’t read a lot to pick up a book which I am all in favour of. However, people who read a lot would probably notice the lack of depth to the story and characters. I won’t be continuing with this series but I definitely think there is an audience for this type of book.

Overall rating 1 out of 5.

Looking for Alaksa by John Green

Looking for Alaska follows Miles Halter as he makes a big decision in his life. He decides he wants to go to his dad’s old school, Culver Creek. It’s a boarding school miles away from home so he’s hoping that a new start will be positive for him. Back home he doesn’t have any friends and has no ambitions; he’s fed up with his life. At Culver Creek he has a roommate, Chip or The Colonel, who quickly becomes his friend. The Colonel has a group of friends that welcome Miles into their fold. One of those people is Alaska Young and Miles is immediately attracted to her. The gang mess about drinking and smoking until one day something big happens and their world changes.

Miles is eager to make friends and so pretty much does whatever The Colonel wants him to do so instead of muddling along and keeping his nose clean, he takes up smoking and drinking. He gets himself the name Pudge as well due to how skinny he is. His infatuation with Alaska means he lets himself get led astray when the group pull their pranks. I couldn’t really connect with Miles or Alaska but I did quite like The Colonel. So being from Miles’ point of view wasn’t the easiest read. It was a bit like watching Skins on TV. You have an idea that this sort of thing goes on with frustrated teens but I have no experience of it myself.

I couldn’t quite make out how the school worked. They seemed to be able to leave whenever they wanted and had cars to get around. The school is set in what appear to be large grounds as they have a wood and a lake. But there is a McDonalds and convenience store within walking distance. Like with any school, the teens know all the hiding places and which teachers can be trusted and which need to be avoided. Having said that, it seems like a close knit place and the teachers know all the students and are happy to help them.

The book is very much about the characters and apart from the incident that occurs half way through the book there is no action. Miles changes after moving out of home. He becomes more confident and wants to do something with his life. He’s happy and wants life to stay exactly as it is for a while so he can enjoy himself. Obviously, this isn’t the case and his relationships with his friends are put under strain after the event occurs. He realises that he doesn’t actually know these people all that well. Other than The Colonel and Alaska he doesn’t have a lot in common with the rest of the group. This threatens t put him back to square one and he wants the group together.

I had high expectations for this book as I had heard it was really good. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I didn’t know anything about the content of the story. I’d seen John Green on YouTube so had a preconception of the sort of book he would write. This wasn’t what I expected so it took a while to get into the story. The issues this book deals with appear to be common for him. I enjoyed the way he had the characters deal with it. The second half of the book was more exciting to read than the first. Although, without the first half, you wouldn’t know quite how devastating the event is. I wouldn’t recommend this to younger teens as some of the content is mature. I didn’t like the book as much as I was hoping to but I certainly didn’t not like it.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

On April 8^th 1998 15 year old Kevin Khatchadourian shot seven of his fellow high school students, one teacher and one cafeteria worker. Almost two years later, his mum Eva tries to figure out why he did this. Was it her fault? Or is he innately bad? In a series of letters to her husband, who is no longer living in the same house, she tries to explain events as she experienced them. To truly try and get inside Kevin’s head she goes right back to before he was born. She also, as she does every two weeks, goes to see Kevin in prison to try and talk to him about it. But is this kind of thing really something you can figure out? Is it really that black and white?

The premise of the book is fascinating. What would you do if your child committed mass murder? It is not something that people think about because they don’t think it will happen. Eva certainly didn’t believe Kevin would do it. The victims’ families lose someone but, to a degree, the family of the killer lose someone too. The person they thought they knew isn’t that person at all. As the family are not locked up out of reach, they get all the anger and frustration directed at them. Eva gets stared at wherever she goes and has had paint smeared all over the house.

Kevin is a mystery. He doesn’t seem to care about anything, including himself. Several people have tried to explain his apathy, saying he is hiding his emotions because he is scared or angry. To be fair to Kevin, he didn’t have the most positive start to life. His mother wasn’t sure she even wanted a child and motherhood didn’t come naturally. She did try though and Kevin didn’t make it easy for her by refusing to communicate properly with her. He kept everything to himself and although his dad also tried to talk to him just told him what Kevin knew Franklin wanted to hear. From the outside Kevin had everything, a mum and a dad, the three of them lived in a nice house and had plenty of money. Kevin is incredibly intelligent but is also either a psychopath, a sociopath of both.

Eva’s letters are very revealing and she bears all to her husband. Things used to happen around Kevin that Eva knew were Kevin’s doing but his dad, Franklin, refused to see anything bad in his son. Eva is honest about not being the best mother but, especially when he depended on her more, she did everything the books said but Kevin gave her nothing in return. She seems like a bit of a sociopath as well as she doesn’t put Kevin first and would rather not be in his company. You can understand that having a child like Kevin isn’t easy. She had no idea what was going on where he could read her like a book.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in psychology, the human condition and morality. Throughout the book there is conflict between Kevin and Eva, and Eva and Franklin. It appears that Kevin and his dad have a close relationship. In reality I think Eva and Kevin have the closest relationship, even if it is an unconventional one. Although only Kevin himself can know what’s going on in his head, Eva seems to see the real Kevin and not one of the many fronts he presents depending on the situation. Lionel Shriver must have really got inside both characters and it can’t have been a fun place. There is no action in this book. It’s more a character study that encourages you to think. Absolutely brilliant.

Overall rating 5 out of 5.

Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson

This book is a thriller and a very good one. Christine wakes up every day with no idea who she is or where she is. Every day her husband, Ben, has to explain to her why she can’t remember anything. She had an accident that left her brain damaged. It took her years to recover and she is still only remembering what happens up until she falls into a deep sleep. Then her mind essentially resets and she is back to square one. Some days Christine gets flashes of memory and knows certain things that happened in her past. She is contacted by a doctor and together they are determined to help her memory get stronger and remember more.

Christine as a character is unusual in that you are reading the story and she knows as much as you do. In fact, as the days go on, she sort of knows less than you. It’s an interesting way to narrate a story. There are some things you read over and over again due to Christine’s illness but the explanations get shorter so it’s not too annoying. You don’t properly get to know the other characters in the book as Christine is meeting them for the first time every day and you are stuck in her head. However, this does help with the ‘thriller’ part of the story.

The book is told in two different ways. The first part is waking up with Christine and learning who she is with her. The second part is Christine reading a journal, so is written as separate entries. The third part goes back to being inside Christine’s head. Really, this is the only way to tell the story, as she has no idea what is going on. One day isn’t really long enough to discover who you are and work out who everyone else is and who these people are that you keep having visions about. That takes weeks to figure out. Although, having said that the book is just set over one day, with the journal as bringing you up to speed on what has happened for the past twenty years.

I did like this book and would like to read it again at some point now that I know what happened to Christine. I’d like to see if there are clues that you can pick up on if you know what to look for. I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery and likes to be scared. For the last 60 or so pages I just couldn’t put it down. I had to know what was going to happen. As I so desperately wanted to know I was guessing, rather than let the story take me there by itself. I did figure I out just before Christine which made the whole thing worse because then I really needed to finish the book and make sure the characters I wanted to survive did so. A gripping read and I hope there are more like this to come from the author.

Overall rating 4 out of 5.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I Capture the Castle is the journal of seventeen year old Cassandra Mortmain. She lives in a house come castle with her father, stepmother, sister, brother, Stephen the son of the, now deceased, house keeper and her dog and cat. Her father wrote a bestselling book but has stopped writing and as a result the family now has no income and are making do as best they can. That all changes when the man they rent the castle from dies. His grandsons from America inherit and come to England to claim what is theirs. This excites Cassandra and her older sister Rose and what ensues is a tale of love, jealousy, family and growing up.

I really enjoyed Cassandra as a narrator. She has some amazing turns of phrase that make me laugh and she mentions that she’s a Jane Austen fan and that comes across in her writing style. Although her family doesn’t have any money and no foreseeable future of that changing, she takes it all in her stride and does what she can to help out around the house. She is a practical person, which I like, and doesn’t understand her sister sometimes, who is less practical. I’m not a massive fan of Rose but I did like most of the other characters, even if it is difficult to tell what they’re really like as it’s from Cassandra’s point of view.

I liked the writing style of having it as journal entries, but some went on too long for me, I prefer shorter chapters. There were also points when it would suddenly jump a few hours between paragraphs, which I don’t mind, but there’s no warning. It would have been nicer to have a space between paragraphs. The book is split up in to three parts because she ends up writing in three different journals. That works out well because the story does take place over several months and a lot happens in that time. The first part is mostly setting things out but the rest is what happens to them when the Americans turn up.

The descriptions of rural Suffolk are beautiful. Dodie Smith wrote it when she was living in America and feeling nostalgic for England. You can tell this from the way she describes it. It does have an idealistic feeling to it, like something out of Midsomer Murders. Nonetheless it is nice to picture their surroundings, living in this strange-looking building sat in the outskirts of a village surrounded by farmland. It’s all very idyllic. They go to London a couple of times and that too is a bit more fanciful than it is in reality. But to be fair I haven’t been to London that much and some parts of it are quite nice. It is a bit of a homage to England.

I did like this book and it felt just really fun to read. Despite not having the best living conditions and having enough food to eat, Cassandra enjoys her life and wouldn’t change it for anything. The family is stuck in a rut when we meet them but their life turns around and it’s for the better. They grow as a family and Cassandra gets to know the male members of her family a lot better. Before she spent most of her time with her sister. In some ways Cassandra grows up a lot but in other ways she stays the same. She doesn’t take life or herself too seriously and that is refreshing to read. I would definitely recommend this book as an easy classic to read, although the end does drag on a bit and gets a bit philosophical.

Overall rating 4 out of 5

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Arnold ‘Junior’ Spirit lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation with his family. His parents drink and his sister has become a hermit who lives in their basement but the family is a loving one. Junior is happy with his life. He knows it’s not the best but none of the Indians he knows are rich and carefree. One day Junior makes a decision that changes everything. It changes how people treat him, including his best friend Rowdy and it changes how he sees his life, his future and his culture. We follow Junior for a year from just before his life changes to afterward. He has a lot to deal with in that time and you really come to feel for him.

Junior is a character I connected with straight away. He’s a bit of a nerd who isn’t sure what’s going on with his life, or what he wants to happen in his life. He likes where he is but at the same time feels stifled by it. But he has dreams, realistic dreams and he means to achieve them. He is a brave character but he knows he is doing the right thing. While he is definitely an Indian, he is also more than that and he comes to realise that you can be more than one thing. You don’t have to define yourself by the boxes you fit in to. We don’t really get to know the rest of the characters that well except Rowdy. Despite this, Junior’s grandmother is one of the most inspirational people in the book.

The story is well written and could easily have been written by a fourteen year old, as Junior is. The style feels very realistic and you can picture the scenes happening in real life. There are also plenty of pictures in the story as Junior loves to draw cartoons. Sometimes that’s the only way he can express how he’s feeling. The pictures are brilliant and go perfectly with the writing, they have the same mood behind them as if they were done by the same person. I really liked how it all came together and it was like you were reading his diary.

The book is based on the author’s experiences when he was growing up and you can really tell because the sentiment isn’t over done and Junior isn’t afraid to tell it exactly like it is. I don’t know much about the relationship between Native Americans and Americans, but the way it is presented here is about right for a situation where any outsider turns up at an established community. They aren’t openly hostile to him, most just sort of ignore him or tolerate him if they need to work together. Had it been a whole group of Indians turning up, it may have been different. The white people may have felt more threatened.

This is a great coming of age book and I would definitely recommend it to people in their teens and older. It does make you think how you would react to an ‘intruder’ into your community. Would you help, hinder or ignore? This book isn’t just about tolerance though. It’s about having the guts to be who you want to be and to get what you want. This is the first book I’ve read about Indians and I feel that I learnt a lot from it. When I finished reading it I had a smile on my face. Sherman Alexie did an awesome job with the subject matter and turning his own personal experience into a really positive result with this book.

Overall rating 4 out of 5.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Road follows the story of a man and his son in a post apocalyptic world. They are travelling towards the coast in the hope of finding others like them. They scavenge what they can and sometimes get lucky and find a store that hasn’t been looted yet. The world they live in is a dangerous place with people doing whatever it takes to survive, including killing each other. Frequently they come across dead bodies in houses and on the road. They are suspicious of meeting “the bad guys” and so are constantly looking over their shoulders and finding secluded places in which to sleep. We never learn the names of the man and the boy because that doesn’t matter in this new, strange, world.

The book doesn’t have any chapters. It’s just one long chapter with gaps between the paragraphs. It also doesn’t bother with grammar most of the time, you have to figure out where the commas go yourself. It added to the sense of confusion and uncertainty that the characters in the book feel. They have no idea what they are going to come across from one day to the next, or even if they’re going to survive. This structure sometimes makes it difficult to work out who’s talking to who. One character will say something and then say something else, but the second thing they’ve said is on a new line. But as there are really only two characters in the story it’s not too difficult to figure out when that happens.

The characters themselves are interesting. It’s unclear how long they’ve been living as they have but it’s years, rather than weeks or months. They’ve become used to it and struggle to remember life before whatever disaster occurred to cause the apocalypse. The man is struggling to cope by himself, without his wife to help him with their son. He is worried about his son, and about something happening to himself that would make him unable to look after his son. The boy lives in a pretty much constant state of terror. He has seen things that he is too young to see and is worried what other horrifying things there are to see. He also likes his dad to be near to him so he knows where he is. The boy is also lonely and dreams of having a friend to play with.

McCarthy tells a good tale of survival against the odds. A good percentage of the population are dead, at least in America, and the survivors are worse off than those who didn’t make it. Although there is not a lot of description and absolutely no embellishment, you get the atmosphere of the place strongly through the man’s thoughts. He is always on the edge of giving up and letting death take him, but at the same time he can’t bear to think of his son dead too or alone without him. It’s hard enough being a parent now, but trying to provide for someone in a world where nothing grows and rivers have dried up is nearly impossible.

I would say I enjoyed this book but enjoyed seems the wrong word given the setting. They come across different people in the book who have coped in different ways. Some are just living in a trance like state and couldn’t care what happens to them. Others are determined to stay alive, even that means killing others in order to do so. It makes you wonder which group you would be in. I would have liked a bit more description but that would have ruined the flow of the book. It’s all told from the man’s point of view and that’s enough. I hope this sort of thing doesn’t happen because you can never be prepared for it.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.

Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

There are five Percy Jackson books that take place from when Percy is twelve to when he turns sixteen. In the first book he learns that some of his teachers are not as he thought and that there seem to be an awful lot of monsters interested in killing him. There is a reason for this. He is half-god. His father is the sea god Poseidon. Having escaped the monsters, he makes it to Camp Half-Blood where he meets other demigods who have a Greek god as a parent. As Percy learns from experience, it’s not easy having a god for a parent. Percy and his friends, Annabeth, Thalia, Tyson and Grover, go on a quest in each book to try and prevent the end of the world.

I was late coming to the Percy Jackson books because I was just too old when they came out for me to hear about them. I’m glad I finally got around to reading them though. They draw you in and they are different. Percy does actually grow up throughout the books and you see him mature and come to terms with the fact that his life will never be normal. Percy would never have survived each book without the help of his friends, and occasionally from a god or two.

There is never a dull moment in any of these books and the action is well written. It’s simply written so you can picture the characters tackling the monsters. There’s not a string of fancy moves that leaves your head hurting trying to figure out how that was physically possible. The relationships between the characters is entertaining to read. As Percy grows up he gets awkward around girls, not really sure how to act and spending the whole encounter with a red face. As is becoming a teenager weren’t difficult enough, he has these powers that he needs to learn how to control and discovers new things that being a son of Poseidon allows him to do. Being a son of one of the three most powerful gods, Percy takes it upon himself to keep the world safe from threat and to look after all his friends and the Camp. He really matures in to this role by the last book and is slightly less reckless. He doesn’t try and take everything on himself.

Having read the first to books I was a bit worried that they would be all the same, just with a changing setting and different monsters. I think having a break after the first two and reading something else was the right thing to do. Had I tried to read them all or waited and had a break after three, I may not have finished the series. I would have missed out. In a way the first three books and pretty much the same but they are gradually introducing the complete cast of heroes. In the last two books things start to get interesting. The tension heats up and the biggest threat to civilisation is on its way. The last book brings everything together and was the perfect ending.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes action and adventure books. I think it would appeal to both boys and girls because Annabeth is right by Percy’s side through every step of the way. The female characters aren’t just background, they play a major part fighting, planning and discovering. As this book is aimed at the 8-11 year old, I think this is a good series to read before starting Harry Potter. As long as you have a break after the second or third book, I think adults would also enjoy this series as a bit of light reading in between more serious books.

Overall series rating 4 out of 5.

The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner

The Maze Runner trilogy is a series of books centred around the character of Thomas. He wakes up in a box with no memories other than his name. After a while the box opens and he finds himself at the centre of a maze with a group of other boys. This is his home now. The boys have all come there the same way and none of them knows how or why. They also don’t know how to get out of the maze. As far as they know there isn’t a way. And they’ve been trying for two years. Thomas isn’t about to take no for an answer, and with the help of his new friends, tries to escape.

The idea of the book is very similar to The Hunger Games. It plays with the idea of a Big Brother style scenario and how different people cope with that. However, I think these books are darker than The Hunger Games as at least Katniss understands why she is there and what is happening to her. Living in a world of increasing technology and security, extreme Big Brothers are fun to read. In this one Thomas knows that he grew up outside the maze and that there is a world outside the maze, he just can’t remember it. This means that the reader also has no idea about the world outside the maze either, although there are allusions to the fact that something is seriously wrong out there. The organisation that holds them is still able to keep them alive by providing them with food and tools that they need. It may be that they are better off in the maze, despite the creatures that can kill you that wander outside the maze centre, than they are out of it.

Thomas is the hero in these books. To begin with he is confused and angry about not being in control of his life. However, he soon makes friends and creates his role in the society of boys. He grows as a person quite quickly, becoming level headed and fearless in order to do what he feels he must. Some of the other characters are of a similar personality to Thomas and are the leaders of the group. There are about ten characters whose fates we follow throughout the trilogy. Some we don’t meet until book two and some don’t make it past book two. As for the maze, well we never find out exactly how that was created.

The book keeps you reading to find out what happens next. I read all three back to back and I think this was the way to read them as they follow directly on from each other so the details are still fresh in your mind. Any more than three and it would have got a bit repetitive. You can’t second guess what will happen to the characters other than the fact that nothing is what it seems. You think they’ve got somewhere only to find that they are still in danger.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a good adventure story with a bit of horror and peril thrown in. It is fast paced and doesn’t give you time to try and work out what’s happening before you’re on to the next danger. The main character is relatable even if he can be a bit annoying at times. You are rooting for him and his friends the whole way through so it is sad when something nasty happens to one of them. The end is somewhat open ended so that you can decide if they live happily ever after or not. It was a fun read to lose yourself in. It makes you wander if you would be as brave as this group of teenagers if you were in their situation, where it’s a matter of fight for your life and sanity or die a painful death.

Overall rating 4 out of 5.

Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin

Coram Boy is a difficult book to explain. It is split in to two halves. The first half follows a boy called Alex as he grows up and becomes a man. He loves music and wants to become a musician. His father wants to train him to run the family estate when he is too old to do it. Alex wants to follow his dream but is torn because he has fallen in love as well. The second half follows a boy called Aaron. He is an orphan and lives in an orphanage with his best friend Toby. Alex loves music and wants to be a musician. Toby isn’t sure what he wants to do. He does know he doesn’t want to be a slave, as his mother is. Where will their futures take them?

Throughout the story there are themes of love, family, slavery, growing up and morality. The book makes you think about how you would react if you were in their shoes. Alex lives a privileged life but isn’t happy. He has a big decision to make about what he values more; love or happiness. He isn’t too worried about his family as he knows they will still love him, although he isn’t sure about his dad. Aaron’s family are the people at the Coram Hospital and he is close to all of them and treated well. He doesn’t get to choose his future. Toby was born at sea on the way from Africa to Britain he has no memory of slavery but sees it often at the docks. Another character, Meshak, has the biggest moral problem. His father buys children. Meshak can’t speak up because he isn’t mentally capable.

The story is set between Gloucestershire and London. The atmosphere of London is well described but I had trouble picturing the layout of the estate. I think that’s more my fault than the author’s. The story jumps around with points of view without any warning and also from no point of view. Each character’s mind is separate enough that, once you notice it’s changed, you can work out who’s head you are in. Once you get used to the writing style, the book is easy to read. You can’t help but get attached to some of the characters and hope things work out for them.

This book took a while to get in to. Nothing really seemed to be happening, although it was an interesting history lesson. It never occurred to me, what happened to all the unwanted and illegitimate children that were born. For the vast majority, the answer is nothing nice. To a large extent it depended on how old the children were when they were given up and the luck of who took the child in. The people who took the children weren’t always doing it to try and help the mother. A lot were doing it for their own ends. Mainly to sell the children to make money.

When I started reading the book I didn’t like it. Some of it was because I’ve been reading so many action filled books lately that this was a bit of a u-turn. Even so I couldn’t get on with the first half of the book. To a certain extent, it’s a build up to what happens in the second half. However, I think if I read it again I would enjoy it more and be more invested in the characters. I did enjoy the second half a lot more and really liked the characters of Aaron and Toby. I would have liked a slightly longer epilogue to see what happened to them. An enjoyable read and it was nice to learn about a more hidden side to the sort of things that people would have got up to at that time.

Overall rating 3 out of 5

Reading Wrap Up May 2013

These are the books I read in May. I didn't read loads because the Dickens book took ages to get through!

Department 19 by Will Hill  --  2 / 5

Looking for Alaska by John Green  --  3 / 5

Hush, Hush by Becca Fizpatrick  --  1 / 5

Wonder by R J Palacio  --  4 / 5

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens  --  4 / 5

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Twelve year old Percy Jackson struggles at school. He can’t concentrate he has trouble reading words and is always getting in to fights. He doesn’t know why this is happening to him. He just wants to be like everyone else and not get expelled from school. One day he goes on a school field trip and his world changes forever. He discovers that there is a reason for the way he is. That reason is that his father happens to be a Greek God. This makes him tougher and able to do things that normal humans can’t do. He has no time to digest this though, because he is being accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt. And you don’t want to upset Zeus. Percy and his friends must find out who is framing him and get Zeus his bolt back.

Reading the book, you wouldn’t think Percy was only twelve. I’d put him at somewhere between fourteen and sixteen. He has a lot of fighting to do that just seems beyond a twelve year old, even if he is half-god. At other times he does come across as a petulant pre-teen. He did annoy me a fair bit but I think that’s more my fault as, obviously, this is not aimed at me. I did enjoy Annabeth as she wasn’t afraid to get stuck in and was battling monsters right by Percy’s side. Most of the grown-ups in this book weren’t very nice, apart from Percy’s mum. I think most children wouldn’t notice this as they aren’t interested in grown-ups anyway. They’re more interested in connecting with people their own age. For the most part.

The book is set in the present day, except the Greek Gods are now living in America. This worked nicely as it means that the characters don’t have to go all the way to Greece to get to Mount Olympus. There was a bit of travelling as the gods have had to hide in plain sight to a certain extent. Some buildings are obscured so that humans can’t see them or disguised as something else. I like the idea of all that going on without you having any idea that they’re there. Seeing the gods taking advantage of modern technology is a nice touch too.

The book wasn’t excellently written but it does draw you in. Although it’s a children’s book it doesn’t talk down to children but the language isn’t so complex that they wouldn’t understand. It also teaches you something about the Greek Gods. In order to fight some of the monsters they come across Percy and his friends need to know who they are in order to know their weakness. It might have been nice to have a recap of the gods you meet in the back of the book with pictures as well so you could learn a bit more about them if you wanted. Each chapter is like a little adventure in itself. Something happens in each one to keep you reading and to keep you interested. Anything that will keep young boys reading is good in my book. I can’t really ask for more character information and Greek history as then it wouldn’t be a young children’s book anymore.

I found myself enjoying this book; it was a nice quick read. It quite clearly wasn’t written for me so I forgave it a lot. I didn’t expect an awful lot from it although there are plenty of people who enjoyed it so I was expecting it to be a fun book at least. Not having expectations means I wasn’t disappointed so just let it take me where it wanted to. There was the mystery of the theft of the bolt that there were clues for in the second half of the book. I guessed who one of the perpetrators was but there were some elements I didn’t get which was a nice surprise. I don’t think I’ll bother seeing the film but I will give the second book a go.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Seraphina is a book about a young woman with a big secret. The story begins with a funeral for a murdered prince. Seraphina works at the castle, teaching one of the princesses music, and as a result gets involved in trying to work out who killed Prince Rufus. The world she lives in is one where humans and dragons live side by side. There is currently peace between the two species although there are those on both sides that do not approve. In this world dragons have the ability to change in to human form in order to communicate with us. With some people convinced that a dragon must have killed the prince, Seraphina and her friends must find out the truth. Can they do this without her having to reveal her secret?

The world that Hartman has created is your traditional medieval castle town with ranging mountains and countryside around it. There are other areas in the world that are mentioned but there is no real description of those. There is a possibility that we may learn more about them in the next book so the author may be saving it. There is no map in this book so it’s not clear how far away the other places are. The city itself is really well described and you can picture the characters walking down the streets and the people and creatures they encounter. The castle is a bit confusing, with hidden corridors, but it doesn’t really matter because you just let the characters take you along.

Seraphina is a really likeable character. She’s not too annoying and just takes things in her stride and isn’t always looking to others to do things for her. Most of the female characters in this book are strong and know what they want. There is a queen on the throne and there are only females in line to the throne. The male characters are just as good. Prince Lucien is smart and kind and eager to help Princess Glisselda and Seraphina if they need him. Seraphina is a bit of a recluse but she does try to get along with everyone. Of course, she ends up making some enemies. They didn’t feel particularly frightening to me and they maybe could have been a bit more intimidating. Overall, the characters were excellent.

The book is told entirely from Seraphina’s point of view, which is good because you really need to see what goes on in her head. There are some flashbacks, but it’s obvious when you are reading one as it is italicised. I found the writing to be exactly as it needed to be. Being a fantasy book, there are some made up words. Most were easy to pronounce but there were one or two that weren’t. That’s normal so I don’t count that against the book. There aren’t too many characters to keep track of but there are family trees in the back. There are also definitions of words that the author has made up. I didn’t realise it was there until I’d finished the book but had managed to grasp what she meant from the context.

I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading the next when that comes out. I want to see what happens to Seraphina and the others. The book wasn’t left on a cliff hanger but it left it open for their next adventure and some hints as to what it will involve. Seraphina grows so much in this book that it will be good to see her with her new found confidence in the next. There is a bit of everything in this book. It starts off kind of slow as you learn her background and the world. It then picks up and the second half of the book is filled with action. There’s a bit of romance too, but not too much, so there’s something for everyone.

Overall rating 5 out of 5.

Game of Thrones by George R R Martin

Game of Thrones is the first book in an epic fantasy series. It is about families feuding over who has the right to the throne of the Kingdom. There are two children who have had to flee the country as they are the rightful heirs to the throne but, being children, have no way to get it back. The rest of their family, including their parents and siblings were massacred at their home. The family who have taken the throne are not a stable family. They did not wed for love and do not see eye to eye on anything. There is a lot of tension going on in that family. Our final family live in the north of the country and were happy to keep themselves to themselves until the head of the family was asked to work for the king. We also follow a group of guards who patrol the Wall at the far north of the country against savages and a new unknown but terrifying foe. There is lots of action, sex and backstabbing in this book. What more could you want?

At first it is a bit tricky to get into because there are so many characters. Throughout the story we see things from, I think, nine different character’s points of view. It doesn’t keep to the same order of rotation between characters and there are no consecutive chapters with the same character. Once you get your head round who everyone is and which family they belong to, it’s pretty easy to figure out. And if you get stuck there are family trees in the back of the book. And if you get stuck there are family trees in the back of the book. Each character has their own problems and morals so you can tell which person you are with by how they behave. Although most of the perspectives are form one family, there is a good mix of ages and genders. We have points of view of both adults and children / young adults which I think is really good as it gives it that something extra.

Fantasy is always a tricky genre because there are often made up words that you have no idea how to pronounce. There is a little bit of this in the book but mostly it’s fine and the names are just variations on ones we know. Such as Eddard instead of Edward. I think this was a wise choice on the author’s part as there are currently seven book planned for the series and none of them are short and some have even been turned into two books. So having easy to pronounce names is important as you don’t want to put your reader off. The rest of the writing is good. It has a good pace to it and certainly doesn’t feel like a long book. It is nicely frustrating when Martin ends a chapter on a cliff hanger and you’re not sure when you’ll be with that character again. It all adds to the drama and mystery of it.

The world that the author has created is easy to imagine. It’s your traditional fantasy setting, a world reminiscent of the Middle Ages where people travel by horse and cart and live in castles. You get a summary of the history of the world throughout the book and Martin doesn’t try to give you too much information at once. It’s usually in a speech when a character is defending their family’s honour. Obviously, with all the books, there is plenty of time to learn how the world got to the situation it is in now. There are also plenty of places left to explore and maps to look at. The one thing the book didn’t have was a timeline. I think it would have been really useful to know when things were happening and over how long. Switching between characters means you don’t know whether you are going backwards or forwards in time.

I enjoyed this book and will be reading the other books at some point. My main concern is what will happen to some of the characters. There are some I really love. And there are some I really hate. I hope I won’t have to spend much time in the heads of those I don’t like. The ones in this book were all good or at least tolerable, which is how you want to start a series, really.  The author has already killed some characters I liked so hopefully there will be new ones to like in future books. The first book eases you in to the fantasy. It’s just a world without oil or electricity, but it does hint there may be more fantasy-ness as the series goes on. I think it deserves recognition. Although I will read the others, I’m not going to start straight away. Don’t go into it with really high expectations because it does take a while to get used to the world but it is definitely worth a read if you like epic adventure stories.

Overall rating 5 out of 5.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

High Fidelity is about a man called Rob who has just split up with his long time girlfriends. She’s not the first person who’s broken up with him and she certainly hasn’t broken his heart the most. He has a top five list of the girls who have done that. Rob runs a record shop and has two assistants who help him in the shop. They are all obsessed with music and heaven forbid if you have the wrong records in your collection. Rob is very self-centred and childish. Even when a situation is obviously about someone else, if he isn’t paid enough attention he throws a strop and storms out. He obsesses about all the wrong things and just hasn’t got a clue. High Fidelity tells the story of how Rob copes after Laura leaves him and he has to do everything for himself again.

Nick Hornby has a good writing style. It’s easy to read and you just get taken along on the journey without too much effort on your part. He really gets inside the mind of his character. The book is written from Rob’s point of view, so we have no idea how the other characters feel, only what Rob thinks they feel. Hornby builds a complete picture of Rob and you feel like you know him inside and out which is good, to be able to know a character that well. I think the way it is written would appeal to a male audience as there are lists and nerdy music information that I think would appeal to the male brain.

I really did not like Rob is a character. If it wasn’t about him he didn’t care. He didn’t think before he spoke and, most of the time, regretted it immediately after he’d said it. I just wanted to punch him in the face for 95% of the book. I persevered and to be fair, he did grow up a bit by the end of the book and got a bit more likeable. He wasn’t mature enough to do it on his own though. If it weren’t for some of the female characters he would have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I think to a certain extent he is stuck in a rut and doesn’t know how to get out but that isn’t an excuse for some of his actions. He doesn’t really know what he wants so can’t be happy with what he’s got. I kept reading because I did like some of the other characters in the book. Unfortunately, being from Rob’s perspective you don’t get to learn an awful lot about anyone else, except Laura. Mainly because he isn’t interested in anyone except himself.

I think I would give another Nick Hornby book a go. His writing is engaging and he certainly knows how to write a full character. The main reason I read this book was because I wanted to see the film so I’m interested to see how that goes. I hope that what goes on in Rob’s head is what goes on in the heads of all men or we should probably be a bit worried. I have a feeling that some men have more self-control than Rob though. At least I hope so. I’m not entirely sure where the funny bits were in the book, all the quotes on the front said it was really funny. It mostly just made me really really angry. I would not want to spend any time with Rob at all. The book might be worth a read to encourage you that even the most immature people have the potential to grow up at some point. Given the right encouragement and pushing of course.

Overall rating 2 out of 5.

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Sabriel is a coming of age story about an eighteen year old girl called Sabriel. She has grown up at a boarding school in the safety of a non-magical town but has been taught some magic as she has the ability. She often speaks to her father who is a kind of necromancer across The Wall where magic is everywhere. Instead of raising the dead, he father helps people pass through who are having difficulty and are stuck between the living and the dead. When Sabriel’s father goes missing, presumed dead, she must cross The Wall in order to save him so he can defeat the darkness that is falling over the world now that he isn’t there to keep it at bay.

I quite liked Sabriel as a character but she was a little bit annoying at times and I just wanted to slap her and tell her to get on with it. She seemed to hesitate quite a lot when told to do something when she was in danger. Thankfully she acquires some companions along the way who help her and take some of the focus off her. If it had been her doing this by herself it would have been a struggle to get through it. Really it was only the middle that annoyed me, but I suppose getting used to a lot of magic bombarding you and being able to feel people die can’t be all that nice.

The world that Garth Nix has created is intriguing in that a Wall is all that separates two very different places. On the predominately non-magic side the Wall is guarded in case anything dead that has been resurrected tries to come through. Only those who live near to the Wall realise how dangerous it can be for the people living on the other side. The non-magic side is essentially early 20^th century with cars and electricity, but the magic side has none of that. The people on the magic side have magic to get light and can make their own machines to move around. Each side knows the other is there but has no desire to communicate with each other because they have no need to.

The story draws you in and makes you want to keep reading. However, for me, I would have liked a bit more description of the places they visit. It seemed a bit action sequence after action sequence with very little respite in between. The ending dragged on a bit as well, I realise that the author wanted to build up plenty of suspense but getting chased by the living dead is scary enough. He does leave plenty of questions to be answered in the next two books which is good. It isn’t on a proper cliffhanger or anything but enough to leave you curious as to how everyone recovers from the events in Sabriel.

I enjoyed this book and it’s a good start for getting in to fantasy novels and novels about magic that aren’t Harry Potter. I like the way magic works in this world. It’s not about waving a wand and saying some words, it’s about creating what you need with your thoughts. It is a book for young people but the main character is slightly older than your average book, being late teens rather than middle teens. This didn’t always come across but you did feel Sabriel had a bit more maturity, which was required of her. Like a lot of fantasy books, it had a map of the land in the front but I would have liked a bit more detail as the scale didn’t quite fit in my mind with how far they’d gone and how long it had taken. I will be reading the others in the series to find out what happens.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.