She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a book about coincidence. Coincidentally, I went to Hay-On-Wye literary festival, and met the author and bought this book. (Actually, I’m not really sure if that was a coincidence since the trip was planned…) Anyways this book certainly got me addicted. I went to the campsite, and read it for the majority of the afternoon in my tent (when there is rain in Wales, you read.) Then, I came home, and finished the final few chapters. Then, it dawned on me. I really, really loved this book.

I’ve not really been very interested in coincidence. It happens to me, and I say ‘wow’ and I’ll be amazed for a little while, and then forget it ever happened by tea-time. Deja-vu however, has the ability to freaks me out more than coincidence, and I find a Deja-vu incident a lot harder to explain to other people. However, I felt that ‘She Is Not Invisible’, dealt with this aspect really well and explored coincidences and chance in a very clever way. I liked how the number 354 cropped up a few times, and the book itself was full of coincidences, the last page of the book is 354.

I loved Laureth, the main character. She was such a strong young woman, it’s her choice to go across the Atlantic to try and find her father, she’s strong-willed and really cares about the people that she loves. She trekked across New York with only a seven year old brother and a stuffed raven named Stan. And Laureth is blind. She does not let her disability to stop her. She was an excellent character, definitely a role model, and I applaud Marcus Sedgwick for giving me a small insight about what it is like to be a blind teenager.

This book is refreshingly different from his Gothic historical novels, it was less serious. I loved that aspect, I found that there were many humorous points, such as Benjamin’s conversations with his stuffed raven toy. However, this didn’t stop the serious and clever points of the book such as Laureth and Benjamin’s father’s Black Book.

Marcus Sedgwick is one of the best YA authors out there. It is such a shame he is so underrated, as each one of his books I have read have been a gem.


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Blood Family by Anne Fine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eddie is rescued from an abusive home from a young age. Anne Fine’s Blood Family discusses the Nature Vs Nurture debate.

I really enjoyed this book. I personally felt that Eddie and Alice were the best characters in the book. Eddie was relatable (and you just wanted to give him a hug), while Alice seemed to be the sensible one, and I loved her for always trying to help Eddie and Lucy. I really liked the split narrative, I thought it really gave dimension to this story, and the different voices were done quite well. However, Fine’s writing in this book was somewhat lacking. I struggled to imagine what Eddie looked like. There was literally no description of him whatsoever. I tried to picture him as an older version of the boy on the front cover with curly blond hair, blue eyes and, for some reason, plaid shirts. However, this image of a quite a cute yet studious boy jarred awfully with the fact that he looked like Harris. Come to think of it, I barely knew what Harris looked like. I felt a little odd after reading this as I couldn’t really picture the main character.

Despite the writing being somewhat lacking, I really enjoyed this book and I read it in one day. I would recommend it.


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Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Perhaps reading a Christmas book in the middle of May wasn’t such a good idea… but it was on offer in the Works, what can you do? This book was a speedy read and I thought these two writers wrote well together, but…

The characters in this book were pretty annoying. First we had Dash who was very pretentious and quite annoying. Although, I did find Lily more annoying, with her naivety and her childishness.

I also got pretty annoyed with an undertone of ‘book superiority’. I believe every book has some worth, and in this book, both characters tossed both romances and YA books aside and they both felt that these classics were better. Fair enough, although it was somewhat paradoxical as this book is a YA novel.


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Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I’m in the mood for anything quick, delightful, realistic and fun, I go for Sarah Dessen. Her writing is like milk chocolate digestive biscuits (my go to snack food). After the brilliant ‘Along for the Ride’, I sought out, ‘Just Listen’. This book is a true gem. The characters are believable, and unlike other Dessen books I’ve read there was this suspense of what happened last summer. I found Annabel surprisingly relate-able for the ‘girl who has it all’ (guess what? She doesn’t!) However, I think the hero of the show had to be Owen. With his obscure music taste and his honest, and sometimes angry, personality – he was perfectly lovable. I would probably recommend this to anyone, it was a perfect break from my revision and I really enjoyed it.

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