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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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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