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Imagine being able to see ghosts when your parents are ghost hunters (of a fashion). Helpful, right? Well…not so much. Cassidy Blake sees ghosts everywhere she goes, and she certainly doesn’t need to visit the most haunted places in Edinburgh to prove that. But of course that’s exactly what happens.
Continue reading City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab |Perfectly placed but also… not
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The ancient stories are always male dominated, with women’s voices being pushed aside in favour of those “heroes” instead. Although let’s be real, my idea of what defines a hero definitely isn’t the type you find in many Greek myths. So imagine my excitement when finding out this book exists, giving another perspective – the women’s perspective – of the stories I’d read and loved before. Combining Homer’s The Iliad and The Trojan Women by Euripides, my anticipation for this book was REAL.
Probably more real than some of these guys’ “heroic” status.
Ohhh she said it. Continue reading The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker |Telling a tale long lost in time
Back in March I introduced this new mini-review series for the Penguin Modern Classics, a collection of tiny pocket-sized modern classics sold for just £1. Having quite a few of these, I decided to review them in groups of three – and today we finally have the second post, the one where things are lost. Somehow – despite choosing them in a completely random order – I’ve managed to find a common theme for each post so far (the first one being “the death episode”) and today’s is very much about what is lost in their story. So we have The Missing Girl, the lost thing in this book being pretty obvious, Africa’s Tarnished Name, discussing the lost culture and accurate representation of Africa, and Till September Petronella, following women who feel lost in their worlds. What you will find, however, is my thoughts on these books below…
Continue reading Penguin Moderns: Part 2 | The one where things are lost
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Don’t let the rainbow cover deceive you; this book is far from the happy-go-lucky story you might expect. Following Charlie Calloway in her Junior year at high school, things gradually begin to turn serious as she’s offered the chance to join secret – though dangerous – exclusive society, dubbing her as one of the elite. When things turn darker and a family secret is unexpectedly involved, the mystery needs to unravel for Charlie to know where she stands.
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In a world where natural death has been eradicated and immortality is a standard expectation from life, Citra and Rowan are chosen as apprentice scythes – scythes being professional killers chosen to keep the population at bay. Thrown into a morbid world forever testing their morals, we learn about this new world order as we watch the two train for the hardest job of their lives.
Continue reading Scythe by Neal Shusterman | Utopia has its problems…
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A grief-stricken world void of colour and laughter. Stories that seem legendary, but were real eighteen years ago. A girl taking the chance she never realised she wanted. All of this – and more – you’ll find in State of Sorrow, and I guarantee you it’s worth the read.
Continue reading State of Sorrow by Melinda Salisbury | Fantasy, politics, and a whole lot of grief
If you’ve followed me on any social media in the past month or so, you just *might* know how excited I’ve been about the new little Penguin Moderns. At £1 each, these tiny books seem to be a fab way of trying new authors or bumping up your Goodreads goal, or even – if you’re like me – giving yourself a tiny confidence boost as you still manage to finish a book within your busy schedule (even if it is only 50 pages long, but shh). And so after eagerly anticipating these gems, I promptly bought 4 of them the day of their release.
…And then went back and bought 3 more. Oops.
But having acquired a little collection, and with the likelihood of me buying more in the future, I thought I do a little review series for them. Since they’re so tiny, I’ll be combining together 3 mini reviews for each post, this first one covering The Vigilante by John Steinbeck, The Breakthrough by Daphne du Maurier, and Four Russian Short Stories by Gazdanov and Others. Without realising, they can all be connected with one common theme: Someone, at some point, dies in each of these lil books. We’re morbidly kicking things off with a death episode. Still, let’s chat books…
Continue reading Penguin Moderns: Part 1 | Otherwise titled “The death episode”
The paperback from Strange The Dreamer is finally coming to the UK! *throws confetti* It’s been a long time coming, and at long last here we are. To celebrate, I’ve joined the Strange The Dreamer blog tour today, sharing my review from when I read this delight of a read and reminding you all that you should give it a go. In fact, I’ve reminded myself that I should reread it sometimes this year, especially with the second book Muse of Nightmares coming out later this year.
Anyway, enough rambling – onto the (spoiler free) review!
Continue reading Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor | Dreams, gods, and a few (hundred) moths
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Set on the streets of 18th century Cairo before plunging us into the world of Daevabad, this is a fantasy novel I’ve been eagerly anticipating for months. Following a conwoman called Nahri, we witness her healing tricks long before she admits to them being magical – that is, until she accidentally summons a (kind of) djinn warrior in the process. Which, to be fair, would convince me too.
Continue reading The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty | Can I just *be* Nahri?
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Today, my lovelies, I’m taking part in a blog tour! It’s been an awful long while since I’ve done one of these, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity when I heard about this book. It caught my attention immediately, and with the need for mystery I’ve been feeling lately, it came at just the right time!
Set in the rainy bushland of the Giralang Ranges, this book follows a team of five women reluctantly sent out on a team building hike. What better way to build team spirit, right? Well, sure…apart from one of them doesn’t come back. Things go downhill real quick when Alice Russell disappears from the group and the rest of the women come back looking worn and disheveled, the situation calling for Aaron Faulk and a whole team of investigators to get involved.
Continue reading Force of Nature by Jane Harper | What happened to Alice?
A frolic through fiction 