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patchworkbunny's Reviews (2.12k)
Amy and her parents are embarking on a voyage of a lifetime. Several lifetimes. Cryogenically frozen in order to survive the 300 year journey, they are heading toward a new planet, with the hopes to colonise it for humankind. But Amy awakes 50 years early. Separated from her parents, she must learn to acclimatise to her new life on-board Godspeed. As she finds out more about the community keeping the ship running, she comes to learn her awakening wasn’t a simple malfunction.
Across the Universe starts off with an amazing scene featuring the cryogenic freezing process. It’s not pleasant or full of hi-tech sleekness. It’s such an uncomfortable scene, first watching her parents and then as the goo envelopes Amy, it’s incredibly claustrophobic. So I was all set for an intense, outer space story awaking on an empty ship. This probably flags the fact that I didn’t really read any descriptions of the book beforehand, just on the recommendations of it being a good YA sci-fi read. When it turned out the ship was populated by a rather dystopian society, I was a bit disappointed. I thought “oh no, no another one” but once I got into it, the community made some sort of warped sense. Hang on, this was a dystopia that had been thought out (and was on a space ship).
There’s a suitable amount of clues along the way to give you a chance to work out how they got that way. It touches on topics such as segregation and how communities can fear the different; how their normal can become so different to ours, for no reason other than environment. There are plenty of harsh truths in this world and it’s not sugar coated for a younger audience.
I did think Orion’s identity was a bit obvious. The ending also felt a bit rushed, especially after such care was taken building up the world. However there were two sorts of endings and the very end was just so emotional. A simple act that breaks your heart. I will be interested to see how it continues in the next book.
Across the Universe starts off with an amazing scene featuring the cryogenic freezing process. It’s not pleasant or full of hi-tech sleekness. It’s such an uncomfortable scene, first watching her parents and then as the goo envelopes Amy, it’s incredibly claustrophobic. So I was all set for an intense, outer space story awaking on an empty ship. This probably flags the fact that I didn’t really read any descriptions of the book beforehand, just on the recommendations of it being a good YA sci-fi read. When it turned out the ship was populated by a rather dystopian society, I was a bit disappointed. I thought “oh no, no another one” but once I got into it, the community made some sort of warped sense. Hang on, this was a dystopia that had been thought out (and was on a space ship).
There’s a suitable amount of clues along the way to give you a chance to work out how they got that way. It touches on topics such as segregation and how communities can fear the different; how their normal can become so different to ours, for no reason other than environment. There are plenty of harsh truths in this world and it’s not sugar coated for a younger audience.
I did think Orion’s identity was a bit obvious. The ending also felt a bit rushed, especially after such care was taken building up the world. However there were two sorts of endings and the very end was just so emotional. A simple act that breaks your heart. I will be interested to see how it continues in the next book.
It started with a Facebook group; Weird Shit Keeps Happening to Me And I Don’t Know Why But Figure I Need Help. When Sharon Li starts to find herself turning invisible as she walks the streets of London, she has no one to turn to for help. So she starts a support group, with tea and biscuits. But there is something missing in the city and as a shaman, it’s up to Sharon to do something about it. Sharon would just like to keep her crappy job serving coffee, but the Midnight Mayor and the goblin Sammy have different ideas.
I didn’t realise the Magicals Anonymous series was a spin-off from the Matthew Swift one but I don’t think it matters; this is the first of her books I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love the idea of the support group and the fact that these mythical creatures embrace the modern world. How often do we read in fantasy that something about their very nature stops them from using mod-cons? It’s refreshing that Sharon googles stuff to find out her answers (even if it’s not always that helpful).
There’s a vampire with a rare condition who can only drink group O blood, a situation only made worse by his obsession with hygiene and screening his victims first. There’s a wonderful banshee who loves modern art and, in order to be polite, writes everything down on a whiteboard instead of wailing like a banshee. A girl who turns into a flock of pigeons and a druid who is allergic to magic. A troll with a taste for human food. And the fate of London in in the hands of this motley crew.
The dialogue is fantastically real. People don’t talk in complete, grammatically correct sentences all the time. The speech is broken, punctuated by uhs and ums. Little snippets of the city filter through to Sharon, presented in incomplete sentences but somehow completely capturing the mood of a city; all the secrets it contains and tableaus of everyday life. The city itself is a character and I love these sorts of fantasy books that are creeping out of the UK recently. Even down to the rubbish; I just adored the scene where they are attacked by plastic bags. Not to mention the evil bankers. Brilliant!
I did find Sharon overly negative. She has a real attitude problem and the tone is a bit snarky in places, but as her tribe rallies around her, she starts to become more likeable. Her anger is her shield. I don’t think it helped that Sammy had a similar personality, so when it was just them it was a bit much to take. When interacting with the other characters, things picked up.
I will definitely be keeping an eye out for book two this summer, The Glass God, and I might well be tempted to check out her other books for adults. Kate Griffin is the pen-name of children's writer Catherine Webb.
I didn’t realise the Magicals Anonymous series was a spin-off from the Matthew Swift one but I don’t think it matters; this is the first of her books I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love the idea of the support group and the fact that these mythical creatures embrace the modern world. How often do we read in fantasy that something about their very nature stops them from using mod-cons? It’s refreshing that Sharon googles stuff to find out her answers (even if it’s not always that helpful).
There’s a vampire with a rare condition who can only drink group O blood, a situation only made worse by his obsession with hygiene and screening his victims first. There’s a wonderful banshee who loves modern art and, in order to be polite, writes everything down on a whiteboard instead of wailing like a banshee. A girl who turns into a flock of pigeons and a druid who is allergic to magic. A troll with a taste for human food. And the fate of London in in the hands of this motley crew.
The dialogue is fantastically real. People don’t talk in complete, grammatically correct sentences all the time. The speech is broken, punctuated by uhs and ums. Little snippets of the city filter through to Sharon, presented in incomplete sentences but somehow completely capturing the mood of a city; all the secrets it contains and tableaus of everyday life. The city itself is a character and I love these sorts of fantasy books that are creeping out of the UK recently. Even down to the rubbish; I just adored the scene where they are attacked by plastic bags. Not to mention the evil bankers. Brilliant!
I did find Sharon overly negative. She has a real attitude problem and the tone is a bit snarky in places, but as her tribe rallies around her, she starts to become more likeable. Her anger is her shield. I don’t think it helped that Sammy had a similar personality, so when it was just them it was a bit much to take. When interacting with the other characters, things picked up.
I will definitely be keeping an eye out for book two this summer, The Glass God, and I might well be tempted to check out her other books for adults. Kate Griffin is the pen-name of children's writer Catherine Webb.
Set in the same universe as Pushing the Limits, this is Lila’s story and chronologically sits between the two novels. I didn’t remember much about Lila but she is Echo’s best friend and stood beside her. When she was at Echo’s brother’s funeral, she met Lincoln, grieving for his own brother, also being buried that day. They strike up a friendship, corresponding by letters and he soon becomes the one person Lila can confide in. Until she finds out he’s been lying. The main problem I found with this story was that the build-up of the relationship wasn’t there and they came across as a bit mushy. There were a few snippets of their letters at the start of each chapter which gave context but…I don’t know, not to the same standard as Pushing the Limits. They probably could have done with a whole book with time to do some proper character development as I quite liked Lincoln.
I can safely say this is the best digital short I’ve read. It’s actually a full novella length at 160 pages and is a prequel to the utterly fantastic Warm Bodies. You will get more out of this by reading the novel first but it’s certainly not filler material. It follows Julie as she travels with her family in search of civilisation, Nora and her brother moving from place to place in search of food and safety and one of the undead, in his first days as he slowly becomes less human. I loved this idea as in Warm Bodies, it’s all about the zombies becoming more human and it’s interesting to see this reversal and how the inner zombie slowly wipes out humanity. I really want another full length novel out of Issac Marion, but for now, this will tide me over.
Another prequel, this time to The Assassin’s Curse but much, much shorter at around 38 pages. It gives a little glimpse into Naji’s past and tells the tale of how he becomes scarred. There is also a bit of back story and him and Leila. Definitely worth a read if you’re reading the series, though wouldn’t work as a standalone.
I’m guessing this is a prequel to The Pirate’s Wish which I haven’t read yet. It introduces Marjani who is a lady being taken away from her previous life on a passenger ship…which soon gets taken over by pirates. She befriends an automaton on board and hatches a plan to save herself. It’s a nice little adventure sorry but I wonder if it would be better read after book two in the series to give it more context.
Bookish Sophie is living in a little village and working in the local teashop when Billy Buskin walks in to her life. In the area to film yet another adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Billy takes an instant shine to Sophie, despite her not having the faintest idea who he is. But there’s a reason Sophie never ventured far from home, can she really build a life with a famous actor and will she ever live up to his exes?
Billy and Me is quite a sweet little book about a village girl who finds herself in a world she doesn’t belong in. At first I was a little dubious about the celebrity wife author angle, but it is clear Giovanna Fletcher has taken inspiration from her own experiences. Sophie doesn’t want to change her life but she can’t just carry on being a teashop girl when all eyes are on Billy.
Sophie is a quiet, mad haired girl whose closest friend is the old lady who runs the teashop she works in. We know her dad is absent for some reason and her relationship with her mum is rocky. But she won’t leave her comfort zone. This lovely, kind, timid person at the start reminded me of a few people I know and she made me smile, looking after all the gossipy ladies even if she was too scared to do anything for herself.
I got a bit frustrated about her attitude once she gets to London. She has this wonderful, caring boyfriend who is happy to support her in whatever she does…so she decides to work in a crappy coffee chain. I can understand the idea of wanting independence but it just came across as a huge waste of opportunity. She’s in London and she doesn’t have to pay rent! She also came across a bit immature in handling Billy’s sex scenes. He’s an actor…the way film and TV is going these days, having fake sex people is pretty much taken for granted. I don’t doubt partners feel jealous and insecure now and then but this was a bit over the top.
I did get a bit bored in the middle but to be honest, I have no patience with celebrity lifestyles and I could see where the whole thing was going. Paul was incredibly obvious in his manoeuvrings and the narration decided to spell it out for the reader just you can’t work it out from what he says to Sophie. However I really liked that parts that were more about Sophie, her love of books and baking and her family and friendships in her home village. I’d certainly read a second book if it ventured away from the celebrity side of things. Oh and Giovanna seems to really like exclamation marks; she had characters exclaiming over sentences that didn’t need them which made some of the characters seem a bit manic at times. But there were lots of great observations about celebrity culture and its impact on the people close to them.
Billy and Me is quite a sweet little book about a village girl who finds herself in a world she doesn’t belong in. At first I was a little dubious about the celebrity wife author angle, but it is clear Giovanna Fletcher has taken inspiration from her own experiences. Sophie doesn’t want to change her life but she can’t just carry on being a teashop girl when all eyes are on Billy.
Sophie is a quiet, mad haired girl whose closest friend is the old lady who runs the teashop she works in. We know her dad is absent for some reason and her relationship with her mum is rocky. But she won’t leave her comfort zone. This lovely, kind, timid person at the start reminded me of a few people I know and she made me smile, looking after all the gossipy ladies even if she was too scared to do anything for herself.
I got a bit frustrated about her attitude once she gets to London. She has this wonderful, caring boyfriend who is happy to support her in whatever she does…so she decides to work in a crappy coffee chain. I can understand the idea of wanting independence but it just came across as a huge waste of opportunity. She’s in London and she doesn’t have to pay rent! She also came across a bit immature in handling Billy’s sex scenes. He’s an actor…the way film and TV is going these days, having fake sex people is pretty much taken for granted. I don’t doubt partners feel jealous and insecure now and then but this was a bit over the top.
I did get a bit bored in the middle but to be honest, I have no patience with celebrity lifestyles and I could see where the whole thing was going. Paul was incredibly obvious in his manoeuvrings and the narration decided to spell it out for the reader just you can’t work it out from what he says to Sophie. However I really liked that parts that were more about Sophie, her love of books and baking and her family and friendships in her home village. I’d certainly read a second book if it ventured away from the celebrity side of things. Oh and Giovanna seems to really like exclamation marks; she had characters exclaiming over sentences that didn’t need them which made some of the characters seem a bit manic at times. But there were lots of great observations about celebrity culture and its impact on the people close to them.
There’s a devil in New Orleans; trading wishes for souls. Meanwhile, barmaid and now co-bar-owner, Sookie, is preparing for her brother’s wedding and spending time with her friends. She’s trying not to think about how things lie between her and Eric; in his eyes she chose Sam over him. And Sam’s acting odd too but he has come back from the dead and might need time to adjust.
Dead Ever After serves as a curtain call to the series. Everyone rallies round to help out Sookie. There are appearances from her enemies as well as those who have gone out their way to help her over the years. I loved that she seemed to be getting a bit tired of all the trouble and danger that she gets in. Even Sookie agrees the end has come. The format deviates a little from the norm, starting with chapters in third person without Sookie present. I liked that it went back to its mystery roots, with plenty of chances to piece together the puzzle, despite there being a huge array of pieces to choose from.
Throughout the series, Sookie has been very lucky with getting away with things. So she’s been tortured and heart-broken…but she’s managed to avoid the hand of human law. When she is arrested, I did start to wonder if the series was going to end cruelly, lock her away for the rest of her years behind bars. It also made me chuckle that one of the vampires was called Karin Slaughter; I’m guessing this wasn’t a coincidence. Sookie is also reading Dana Stabenow, both little nods to the crime fiction Charlaine enjoys herself.
So, the ending. I have no idea why fans got so irate; just because it didn’t end how they wanted doesn’t make it a bad book. I actually think it was the best way to leave Sookie and be assured that she wouldn’t be in future danger. There were partings that were a little sad and I got a bit emotional at the end. It’s a fond farewell to a character I have loved, through the good times and the bad. But as the author, Charlaine is the one to decide what happens to them all. In the dedication, she states she can’t please everyone and therefore she ended it the way she had always intended. The actions of the previous book would have made it very hard for things to turn around, this was the logical conclusion if not the popular one.
Dead Ever After serves as a curtain call to the series. Everyone rallies round to help out Sookie. There are appearances from her enemies as well as those who have gone out their way to help her over the years. I loved that she seemed to be getting a bit tired of all the trouble and danger that she gets in. Even Sookie agrees the end has come. The format deviates a little from the norm, starting with chapters in third person without Sookie present. I liked that it went back to its mystery roots, with plenty of chances to piece together the puzzle, despite there being a huge array of pieces to choose from.
Throughout the series, Sookie has been very lucky with getting away with things. So she’s been tortured and heart-broken…but she’s managed to avoid the hand of human law. When she is arrested, I did start to wonder if the series was going to end cruelly, lock her away for the rest of her years behind bars. It also made me chuckle that one of the vampires was called Karin Slaughter; I’m guessing this wasn’t a coincidence. Sookie is also reading Dana Stabenow, both little nods to the crime fiction Charlaine enjoys herself.
So, the ending. I have no idea why fans got so irate; just because it didn’t end how they wanted doesn’t make it a bad book. I actually think it was the best way to leave Sookie and be assured that she wouldn’t be in future danger. There were partings that were a little sad and I got a bit emotional at the end. It’s a fond farewell to a character I have loved, through the good times and the bad. But as the author, Charlaine is the one to decide what happens to them all. In the dedication, she states she can’t please everyone and therefore she ended it the way she had always intended. The actions of the previous book would have made it very hard for things to turn around, this was the logical conclusion if not the popular one.
Aggie McClure is heir to the Manhattan pack. Her father is divorcing her mother in a bid to produce a male heir but in the meantime, Aggie must get married. Hoping to choose her own mate, she is shocked to discover her father has arranged a marriage for her. Victor seems OK and at least he indulges Aggie’s fondness for food but things soon change once they’re married and all Aggie’s freedom is taken away.
Bitter Disenchantment is a prequel to Coveted and explains exactly how Aggie came to be at Natalya’s door. The Manhattan pack has an outdated and misogynistic attitude towards the female members. I got a bit annoyed with Aggie at how quickly she went from pissed off at the situation to accepting…but when the marriage turns sour she turns back into a more modern day woman. I think her pack were a bit too obvious in their dominance over the female werewolves. They become the villains rather than complex characters you can really relate to.
I enjoyed the second half of the story more though. Aggie hatches a plan to help both herself and her mother. She starts sneaking out and connecting with others. Having read Coveted, I knew the overall outcome but it still had me turning the page. It’s a decent length novella at approximately 156 pages and worth a read if you’ve been enjoying the series.
I thought it might shed a little more light on Aggie’s eating problems but it did seem that she just enjoyed food. Her werewolf metabolism means she burns it off and she’s not bulimic, yet in the rest of the series, where Natalya suffers from debilitating OCD, the two met because they were sent away to sort out their problems. A werewolf having a healthy appetite does not equal eating disorder; I really didn’t understand why her family sent her away. Other than her father is controlling and selfish, of course.
Bitter Disenchantment is a prequel to Coveted and explains exactly how Aggie came to be at Natalya’s door. The Manhattan pack has an outdated and misogynistic attitude towards the female members. I got a bit annoyed with Aggie at how quickly she went from pissed off at the situation to accepting…but when the marriage turns sour she turns back into a more modern day woman. I think her pack were a bit too obvious in their dominance over the female werewolves. They become the villains rather than complex characters you can really relate to.
I enjoyed the second half of the story more though. Aggie hatches a plan to help both herself and her mother. She starts sneaking out and connecting with others. Having read Coveted, I knew the overall outcome but it still had me turning the page. It’s a decent length novella at approximately 156 pages and worth a read if you’ve been enjoying the series.
I thought it might shed a little more light on Aggie’s eating problems but it did seem that she just enjoyed food. Her werewolf metabolism means she burns it off and she’s not bulimic, yet in the rest of the series, where Natalya suffers from debilitating OCD, the two met because they were sent away to sort out their problems. A werewolf having a healthy appetite does not equal eating disorder; I really didn’t understand why her family sent her away. Other than her father is controlling and selfish, of course.
In the village of Downe, a gardener is mourning the loss of his wife. It just so happens he is Charles Darwin’s gardener. Avoiding the prying minds of the rest of the village and turning his back on religion, he is considered a loner. He has questions; if he doesn’t believe in God then what should he put his faith in?
I’ve been struggling with how to word my feelings for this little book. You could open it up at any point and read something, thought-provoking, beautiful or amusing in itself. Peirene Press pride themselves on “literary cinema”; books to be devoured in the time it takes to watch a film. Yet here, the lack of a structured plot makes it a book that doesn’t suit one sitting. I generally like plots in novels, and I think if this were any longer I may have grown tired of it, but as a novella it works so well.
It’s hard to keep track of the narrator, so my advice would be not to try. It becomes a much more enjoyable read when you let go! The narration passes between the villagers and it becomes this wonderful portrait of a village in a moment of time. It’s just like sitting in the local pub and listening to different conversations, only these are the villager’s inner thoughts. Charles Darwin’s presence means that their thoughts veer towards those of religion and science. But some of them are still preoccupied by more everyday things as well as the need for gossip.
I’ve been struggling with how to word my feelings for this little book. You could open it up at any point and read something, thought-provoking, beautiful or amusing in itself. Peirene Press pride themselves on “literary cinema”; books to be devoured in the time it takes to watch a film. Yet here, the lack of a structured plot makes it a book that doesn’t suit one sitting. I generally like plots in novels, and I think if this were any longer I may have grown tired of it, but as a novella it works so well.
It’s hard to keep track of the narrator, so my advice would be not to try. It becomes a much more enjoyable read when you let go! The narration passes between the villagers and it becomes this wonderful portrait of a village in a moment of time. It’s just like sitting in the local pub and listening to different conversations, only these are the villager’s inner thoughts. Charles Darwin’s presence means that their thoughts veer towards those of religion and science. But some of them are still preoccupied by more everyday things as well as the need for gossip.