JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

Theodosia was six when her country was invaded and her mother, the Fire Queen, was murdered before her eyes. On that day, the Kaiser took Theodosia’s family, her land, and her name. Theo was crowned Ash Princess–a title of shame to bear in her new life as a prisoner.

For ten years Theo has been a captive in her own palace. She’s endured the relentless abuse and ridicule of the Kaiser and his court. She is powerless, surviving in her new world only by burying the girl she was deep inside.

Then, one night, the Kaiser forces her to do the unthinkable. With blood on her hands and all hope of reclaiming her throne lost, she realizes that surviving is no longer enough. But she does have a weapon: her mind is sharper than any sword. And power isn’t always won on the battlefield.

For ten years, the Ash Princess has seen her land pillaged and her people enslaved. That all ends here.

Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian is the first novel in a new YA fantasy series. It explores power, family and grief amidst the backdrop of a crumbling tyranny.

The crux of the plot is a young princess who vows revenge on the cruel man who stole her throne. She seduces the prince to aid her mission.

The plot is not unique or original, but it is readable and enjoyable. There are SO many YA fantasy series in the market at the moment, and if I’m being honest, I don’t think this one feels too different from the others. It is well-written and the characters are interesting, but I wasn’t blown away by the book. And I was unimpressed with the stereotypical tropes used in the book — love triangle being the most obvious one.

“This time, I let myself remember how my mother would sometimes let me wear her crown, how it was so big it would fall down around my neck. But while my mother’s crown was wrought from black gold and set with rubies, the one the Kaiser sends me is folded from ashes, and as soon as it is in place, it begins to crumble, streaking my hair, skin, and dress.”

Ash Princess is ripe with tension, suspense and drama. None of the characters can be trusted, and yet you find yourself invested in all of their storylines. The novel is punchy and pacy, and this launches a series that I am interested in continuing. It may not be original, but it is engaging enough to keep me entertained.

I would’ve preferred this novel if Theo had more control over her safety and her future. She needs her friends to help break her out, and it’s their determination that spurs her newfound confidence. And later in the novel, it is her allies that help her out of confinement.

Theo needs other people. She needs other people to save her.

“I’ve been dreaming of freedom every day since the siege, waiting and waiting and waiting for just this moment, when someone would take me as far away from this place as possible.”

I wanted this book to be about a young girl who takes charge and forges a new path for herself. Instead, it’s about a girl with friends and allies who help her forge a new path. She’s determined, yes, but she’s not cold or ruthless. I wouldn’t call her frightening or scary. Once she starts enacting her vengeance, she seems to be incredibly lucky. Almost too lucky.

“Through the wall, I can almost feel Blaise’s thoughts running the same path as mine. Throughout the past decade, the idea of the After has been all that’s kept me going, and i don’t have to ask Blaise to know that a part of him years for it as well. I’ve imagined my mother there, waiting for me.”

This series will appeal to those of you who love YA fantasy. It follows the usual tropes from the genre, but it is really well-written with strong prose and realistic dialogue. Despite it’s 400+ page count, you’ll find yourself tearing through those pages rather quickly.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ash Princess
Laura Sebastian
May 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

One Way by S.J. Morden

A murder mystery set on the frozen red wastes of Mars.
Eight astronauts. One killer. No way home.

WE STAND AT THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA

Frank Kittridge is serving life for murdering his son’s drug dealer. So when he’s offered a deal by Xenosystems Operations – the company that runs the prison – he takes it, even though it means swapping one life sentence for another.

THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO BE ALIVE

He’s been selected to help build the first permanent base on Mars. Unfortunately, his crewmates are just as guilty of their crimes as he is – and he’ll have to learn to trust them if they’re to succeed.

THE FUTURE OF SPACE TRAVEL IS IN SAFE HANDS

As the convicts set to work on the frozen wastes of Mars, the accidents multiply. Until Frank begins to suspect they might not be accidents at all . . .

XENOSYSTEMS OPERATIONS: MAKING DREAMS A REALITY

There’s a murderer amongst them, and everyone’s a suspect.

One Way by SJ Morden is a murder mystery science fiction novel set on Mars. Protagonist Frank Kitteridge has two options: journey to Mars to help build a base for scientists, or remain in prison with a life sentence. What would you choose if you were him?

This may be science fiction, but it’s also a thriller. Frank is sent to Mars among other convicted criminals, and as people start dying, Frank realises that they’ve been murdered. He must find out who is killing and why, before they come for him.

“He checked his air. Twenty per cent. That gave him nominally…OK, that wasn’t a good sign. He should have been able to just come up with a number. He was good with numbers, calculating quantities and part-loads in his head and getting it right. An hour and forty-five.”

The novel is too predictable, unfortunately. It followed a fairly standard plot — one by one people start dying and then right at the end we find out who did it. Additionally, it was quite obvious early on who the murderer was. I didn’t find the ending surprising or shocking.

The pacing was a little uneven; the story took too long to get started. And the pacing was jolted by the need for technical jargon and logistics thrown into the story. There was a lot of set up needed, and I wondered if S.J Morden could’ve begun the novel at a different point to make it more intriguing for the reader.

I found myself skim reading a lot of the book because of all the technical detail. Yes, most of it needed to be there but I do think some of the specific information could’ve been cut. Unless you’re a scientist or astronaut, you’re going to struggle to understand a lot of it and then your interest might wane.

“Frank unplugged it from the RTG, and removed the hoses that fed oxygen to the ship, and he and Zeus — mainly Zeus — lifted it onto a trailer. They coiled up the power lead and the hoses, put them in an empty drum, and collected the empty reserve tanks: big, black, lightweight cylinders made of carbon fibre.”

Frank is a great protagonist. He’s three dimensional and the reader really sympathises for him. He murdered his son’s drug dealer and ever since being convicted and sent to jail, his wife and son have seemingly abandoned him. He’s alone, and he accepts this mission because he wants his son to be proud of him.

I don’t think the other criminals are as layered as Frank. In fact, they felt a little like cardboard cut outs who were only in the story so they could get murdered and further the plot. They could’ve been further developed — particularly their backstories — so that the reader felt something when they died.

As a result, it is hard for the reader to feel the suspense or the tension as the novel progresses. I found myself reading the book to get to the end, but I wasn’t particularly hooked and I think I could’ve stopped reading the book and it wouldn’t have bothered me.

I would recommend this to people who love science fiction, because the technical terminology and the space logistics will really interest them. I don’t think this is best targeted at fans of mysteries or thrillers, because I think the ending is too predictable and you’ll see the twist coming quite early on.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

One Way
S.J. Morden
April 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

The Shape of Water by Guillermo Del Toro and Daniel Kraus

It is 1962, and Elisa Esposito—mute her whole life, orphaned as a child—is struggling with her humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore’s Occam Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbor, she doesn’t know how she’d make it through the day.

Then, one fateful night, she sees something she was never meant to see, the Center’s most sensitive asset ever: an amphibious man, captured in the Amazon, to be studied for Cold War advancements. The creature is terrifying but also magnificent, capable of language and of understanding emotions…and Elisa can’t keep away. Using sign language, the two learn to communicate. Soon, affection turns into love, and the creature becomes Elisa’s sole reason to live.

But outside forces are pressing in. Richard Strickland, the obsessed soldier who tracked the asset through the Amazon, wants nothing more than to dissect it before the Russians get a chance to steal it. Elisa has no choice but to risk everything to save her beloved. With the help of Zelda and Giles, Elisa hatches a plan to break out the creature. But Strickland is on to them. And the Russians are, indeed, coming.

The Shape of Water weaves fantasy, fable and mystery. It was put together by two artists — award-winning director Guillermo del Toro and author Daniel Kraus. Scattered throughout the novel are black and white sketch illustrations by visual artist James Jean. These illustrations help give the reader a sense of vision, and they allow us to imagine this story on the big screen.

I was intrigued to read this novel after the movie won Best Picture at the Oscars. It has such an odd plot and quite a quirky romance that I was definitely keen to see what all the fuss was about.

This novel may appeal to all age groups, but it is written like an adult novel, with complex vocabulary and a dry third-person narration. The pacing is quite slow but the characters are full of depth. Given Elisa’s mutism, there isn’t much dialogue to the book. The Shape of Water is mostly prose and description.

“Man should be better than monsters.”
“Ah, but who are the monsters?”

The Shape of Water also highlights the gender inequality of the 1960s. The two main female characters are cleaners, with low-paying jobs and very little respect. The ‘important’ workers involved in the project are all men, and some of them are very dismissive towards Elisa and Zelda. The novel also explores the relationship between Strickland and his wife Lainie. She stays at home with the children, not working or having the chance to make many friends. He’s away for work, sometimes months at a time, and there is very little communication between the two.

There is a definite imbalance in each relationship. Strickland is rarely home and when he is, he doesn’t treat his wife with much respect. He’s dismissive and doesn’t understand how demanding their children are. Over the course of the novel, Lainie finds her own purpose and starts to imagine a life without Strickland.

Additionally, Zelda’s husband Brewster is useless and unappreciative of his wife. He’s demanding and he belittles her and Elisa often thinks about how Zelda would be better off without him in her life.

“Working women don’t get to scurry home and bury their faces in pillows when they’ve been yelled at. You settle your trembling hands by wrapping them around your tools and returning to work.”

The pacing is a little inconsistent. The book takes a long time to kick off — with a lot of backstory and build up — and then the final third of the book moves so quickly that I actually had to go back and reread a few chapters because I was sure that I had missed something integral.

I haven’t seen the movie, but this novel feels void of character emotion. This is supposed to be a grand love story between Elisa and the sea creature, and yet, their romance seems to blossom very quickly but behind the scenes so the reader doesn’t really witness it. And then there’s this grand plan to save the creature from his fate, and I found it quite predictable. Truthfully, I didn’t find myself hugely invested in their romance.

“Zelda kneels to pick up the punch card. Yolanda’s going wild behind her. But all Zelda hears is Brewster carrying on about how she shouldn’t trust anyone. He doesn’t know Elisa, though, does he? Of course he doesn’t. Despite their long years of friendship, Elisa’s never been to Zelda’s home, not once.”

This novel will appeal to people who, like me, want to read the book before they see the movie. It’s not my favourite novel, nor my favourite fantastical romance, but it is something rather different and the characters carry this novel just as much as the plot does.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Shape of Water
Guillermo Del Toro & Daniel Kraus
March 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Lebs by Michael Mohammed Ahmad

As far as Bani Adam is concerned Punchbowl Boys is the arse end of the earth. Though he’s a Leb and they control the school, Bani feels at odds with the other students, who just don’t seem to care. He is a romantic in a sea of hypermasculinity.

Bani must come to terms with his place in this hostile, hopeless world, while dreaming of so much more.

The Lebs by Michael Mohammed Ahmad is a coming of age novel set in Punchbowl, Sydney.

This is an adult novel, but it would still be very relatable for teenagers — particularly males. It’s mostly set within a high school, and explores the relationship between Bani and his friends, and some of the girls that he meets over the course of the year.

The novel is saturated with swearing and adult themes, so I’d definitely set a 15+ age recommendation on the book.

The Lebs explores themes of race, gender, sexuality and identity, all through the telescope of male teenagers. It’s set in the wake of September 11, when most Muslim and Arabic men are labelled terrorists or rapists. The novel highlights racism in Australia, and would be particularly eye-opening for white readers.

The dialogue is sharp and blunt, and Michael Mohammed Ahmad has done a great job of really painting all of these characters through their dialogue. There are a lot of scenes featuring a large number of teenage voices, and I think the author did well to differentiate them so that the reader doesn’t get too confused when reading.

“I look onto Osama and Shaky, and they lock onto me, and onto one another, a triangle of thorns. I hear the thoughts transmitting through their gaze, telling me that this isn’t the girl from the plays we learn at school; this is the girl from the news, the girl who sends us to prison.”

The writing in this book almost feels like stream of consciousness — long sentences with very little punctuation and a real concentration is needed in order to follow what’s going on.

At first glance, not much actually happens in the book. Sure, Bani talks about his friendships and his first girlfriend and then we read as he joins a multicultural arts program. But at its core, there doesn’t seem to be a message or a theme or any kind of meaning. It’s just, meaningless teenage stuff in Punchbowl?

And then I realised, that’s the point of the book. This is about Bani navigating his school year and all that’s going on, and the reader getting a real insight into life as a student at a school where no one really seems to care about much and life is rife with hyper-masculinity.

‘Bani Adam thinks he’s better than us!’ they say over and over until finally I shout back, ‘Shut up, I have something to say!’

They all go quiet and wait for me to explain myself, redeem myself, pull my shirt out, rejoin the pack. I hold their anticipation for three seconds, and then, while they’re all ablaze, I say out loud, ‘I do think I’m better.’

I’m glad that this novel is only 250 pages, because if it were any longer I would’ve lost interest. The plot and the narration starts to drag a little towards the end, and I wasn’t as absorbed in the storyline and the characters as I thought I would be. This isn’t really my favourite book, but I still followed along and finished the story.

This book would appeal to Sydney-siders, or young teenage boys looking for a story they can relate to. Literary fiction readers might find some of the content quite confronting, but the lyricism and poetic flow of the book will probably intrigue them enough to enjoy the read.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Lebs
Michael Mohammed Ahmad
March 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

Redemption Point by Candice Fox

In a dark roadside hovel called the Barking Fog Inn, the bodies of two young bartenders lie on a beer-sodden floor. Only the night-time animals in the surrounding forest were close enough to hear their screams.

Crimson Lake’s resident private detectives are hired to take on the case. Disgraced former police detective Ted Conkaffey and convicted murderer Amanda Pharrell are uneasy allies working alongside DI Pip Sweeney on her first homicide investigation.

For Ted, a new case serves as a welcome distraction from his fight to clear his name over the abduction of a teenage girl.

For all three, the hunt for the truth will draw them into a violent dance with evil. Redemption is certainly on the cards – but it may well cost them their lives…

Redemption Point by Candice Fox is a crime novel set in Far North Queensland in Australia. The novel follows on from the events in Crimson Lake, after Ted Conkaffey has been released from prison and has returned to work as a police detective.

I hadn’t read Crimson Lake, and I was still able to follow the plot of this novel. There’s a fair bit of backstory to be learnt, but thankfully Candice wove it into this plot so that it didn’t matter if you hadn’t read Crimson Lake.

And for any reader out there who has read Crimson Lake but your memory has faded, there is plenty of information dropped into the book that will help you jog your memory just in case it’s been a while since you finished the last book.

“Three or four weeks after I was arrested for Claire Bingley’s sexual assault and attempted murder, my wife gave up on me. She surrendered to the relentless pursuits by 60 Minutes and gave them an interview distancing herself from me, stopped visiting me as often in remand, stopped appearing in the gallery at my committal hearings.”

Redemption Point is a crime novel that offers relief from the usual tropes found in this genre. Amanda Pharrell is as bizarre as she is skilled, and her comic dialogue is entertaining for the reader. Ted Conkaffey is working hard to clear his name of rape and attempted murder, whilst also working to solve the murder of two young people in a bar. He is wounded, but also defiant.

“I’d watched Dale looking over the pages for a little while, knowing exactly the kind of dark thoughts that were swirling through his brain. It’s a shock to learn for the first time that there are far more sex offenders around in polite society than the newspapers report.”

This book has two storylines running parallel — there is the investigation into the double-murder in the bar, and then there’s the investigation into Claire Bingley’s assault and attempted murder.

Claire’s father Dale hunts down Ted, but then when he realises that Ted may actually be innocent, the two of them pair up to try and find the real perpetrator. And in addition to this, interwoven throughout the book are first-person diary entries from the real criminal, Kevin.

With this many layers to the book, it’s almost impossible for the reader to be bored.

“Dear Diary,
I walked to Penny’s front door with the dog in my arms like a peasant come to put an offering before my queen. I remember the feeling of her, warm and struggling against my chest, a young dog who just wanted to explore the new sights and smells of the front of the house.”

I do think that the weakest element of this book was actually the investigation into the murder of the couple in the bar. It was still entertaining to read, but I was far more interested in Kevin’s story and Ted’s partnership with Dale.

Crime fiction readers will love Redemption Point; they’ll love the characters that Candice Fox has crafted. The novel is thrilling and maintains the interest of the reader and entices them to keep turning the page. Redemption Point is punchy and pacy.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Redemption Point
Candice Fox
February 2018
Penguin Random House

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