The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As I picked this up in an Edinburgh Oxfam, I knew I would love this book. I just knew. A fairy-tale style book, with a girl whose feet are turning to glass.

I found this book to be beautifully written. I really got an excellent sense of St. Hauda’s Land and of the wintertime. Therefore, I read this book especially slowly to savour the beautiful writing. This is also reflected in the relationships and flash backs with certain characters, e.g. Henry Fuwa, Carl and Midas Crook senior. That is what I adored, the relationships between the minor characters.

I adored the magical element, the moth-winged cattle and the glass people. Yet, I was disappointed that nothing happened to the moth-winged cattle at the end.

However, even though I liked the two main characters, Ida and Midas, I felt the romance between them fell very flat. Luckily, I saw their romance as a side note to the story rather than the whole story.

Despite the romance of the two leads being a bit off, I would recommend this to fans of Mr Nobody or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for the magical realism, description and the relationships of the minor characters.


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Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While I appreciated the amount of imagination in this story, by no means did I enjoy it. Firstly, I found that there needed to be a sense of time and place. I didn't know when it was set, I guessed Victorian, and Paris did not feel like Paris. I found the story dragged a little with a quick resolution at the end,which I did not like. I liked Charles Maxim but I disliked his ward Sophie. However, most of all, the worst thing about this book is that I didn't care. I didn't care about the characters, the plot or Sophie's mother. I just didn't care. I suppose I might've enjoyed this book more if I was ten or eleven rather than seventeen.

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NW by Zadie Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed reading N-W. It was the first novel by Zadie Smith that I have read, but I assure you, it won’t be the last. However, while reading this book my opinion was influx. The easiest way to address this is to review each section.

Visitation (Part 1)

This section 1 out of 5 stars. I found the way this part was written hard to follow. Despite the dashes indicating when speech began, I was still confused as some speech ran into Leah’s stream of consciousness. I wasn’t really concentrating on the writing or the plot or Leah, I was just trying to figure out what was being said.

I suppose this focus on Leah was disappointing, I found her story to be not as interesting as others in the book. I also found Leah to be a little whiney, which annoyed me.

Guest

I really enjoyed this section. I would’ve given it 5/5. I found Felix to be a very interesting character, and I thought that the side characters were particularly well fleshed out. Felix’s section was easier to read and it really brought out the grittiness of London, with characters such as Lloyd, Annie, and what happens to Felix at the end.

Host

I loved how this section was written, again, I would’ve given it five out of five. The idea in this part of the novel is that the reader is Natalie’s ‘host’ and we see key events in her life unfurl. I found this to be a very interesting idea and I loved how it was executed. It certainly gave us a flavour of Natalie’s life and I thought the events that happened in this section were very engaging. I also preferred Natalie greatly to Leah, and I found her character to be a fascinating one.

Crossing

Three out of five. While I enjoyed the premise, and I liked how Natalie and Nathan were on a journey during this conversation, I disliked the writing. This is partly because I love speech marks. I really do. Speech mark less, I get terribly confused. I also thought Nathan’s character was a bit of a shame. Rather than having his own part like Felix or Leah, he was merely a plot point for Natalie.

Visitation (Part 2)

Two out of five. I was mostly confused by the necessity of this part. I would’ve been happy if Zadie Smith had left it at Crossing. Nothing really happened in this section and there was no sense of a conclusion to the story, it just ended. There wasn’t a cliff-hanger either. I got the sense that N-W was simply a snippet of people’s lives, but even then I did want some sense of an ending.


What else I liked about the book: Despite me not being a Londoner, I thought Smith captured London excellently. I really enjoyed reading about the multi-cultural society and I thought Smith did a great job portraying it.


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Nectar: A Novel of Temptation by Lily Prior
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars out of five

This was an OK, but fun read. The comic actions of the characters in this tragicomic made me laugh. However, it is certainly not memorable nor greatly impressive.

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Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book made me weep.
I cried when we met Maddie and Jamie again, because I thought I lost them in ‘Code Name Valerie’.
I sobbed when Rose went to Ravensbrück, because I knew what lay in store there.
(view spoiler)[I became lachrymose when Karolina sacrificed herself. (hide spoiler)]
I was in shock at the end.

Elizabeth Wein has the glorious ability to make characters come alive, make events in history become more alive than some statistics in a history book, and her writing and her characters’ struggles have the ability to make me weep. Which is a very rare thing to do.

I think my favourite character was either Anna or Róza. I loved Anna because she added another dimension to the story. It wasn’t just a one sided story about the Allies, Anna, a German prisoner, was affected too. Later on in the book she tells Rose about the mass rape in Germany after (and during) the end of the war, an event that I don’t usually find mentioned in historical fiction. I loved Róza because even though she was childish and had temper tantrums, if I was in Rose’s position, I would want a friend like Róza.

Despite the fact that I adore romance books, I am very pleased that both Elizabeth Wein’s books are not focused on it. It’s nice not to read about if the girl gets the boy, but rather about strong young women overcoming war.

So go on and read some Elizabeth Wein! *Tissues not included with this review.


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Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the fifth book I read which has been shortlisted for the Carnegie award 2014. I think I want this one to win.

I personally felt that Susan Cooper’s ‘Ghost Hawk’ was very insightful in the tribes of the indigenous Americans, and I greatly enjoyed learning a lot about this in the book. I found the concept and fantasy element to be very intriguing and I was hooked as I read that part of the book. With believable and honest characters and a fast-paced plot, ‘Ghost Hawk’ is surely a winner.


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Geek Girl by Holly Smale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. Harriet Manners is a 15 year old geek who is unexpectedly scouted for a modelling agency. ‘Geek Girl’ was very funny and a very quick read, however, I sometimes felt that sometimes it was a little too light.

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