JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Neverland by Margot McGovern

After doing herself near-fatal harm, Kit has returned to her island home. But it’s a place she hardly recognises: the witch and the mermaids are hiding and the pirates have sailed to more bountiful shores. In their place is Neverland and its inhabitants – damaged teens too sick to be in regular school, watched over by her psychiatrist uncle. And now Kit is one of them.

Kit has a choice. She can use illicit night-time adventures with friends and mysterious new boy Rohan to avoid the truth. Or she can separate harsh reality from childhood fantasy and remember the night of her parents’ deaths.

What really prompted her family’s departure from the island? Did a monster drive them away? Is the monster still there?

Neverland by Margot McGovern is a debut contemporary YA novel that explores family, trauma and mental illness.

This is a contemporary retelling of Peter Pan, transforming the classic fairytale we all love into a vastly different YA novel about a school for mentally ill teenagers — The Lost Ones — and their journey towards becoming better. Kit is sent there after self-harming.

Margot captures mental illness incredibly well but she also approaches it with sensitivity. Kit is damaged and bitter, but she’s had a really tough childhood that she’s struggling to overcome.

“Dr Ward had been angling to get me on her couch for years. She’d pestered me to make appointments with her whenever I was home between schools, ostensibly offering a sympathetic ear after Doc had finished chewing me out over whatever I’d done to merit my latest expulsion.”

The setting of Neverland is one of its strengths. Kit was raised in Neverland, which is the unofficial name for Learmonth. This island is enclosed and secluded, allowing the reader to feel like they’re invited to this private story full of secrets and twists.

Additionally, there is this magical element to this world. Kit tells stories to help herself cope with the death of her parents — her memories are deeply repressed and she doesn’t really know what is real and what isn’t. Kit has retreated into her own fantasy stories because she’s struggling to deal with reality. At night, she escapes her boarding house to go on adventures and to explore the island that she grew up on. Slowly, memories from her childhood resurface and she’s forced to face what she’s been trying to bury.

“Speaking with Doc had gummed up my thoughts and left me feeling guilty. I knew I wouldn’t sleep and wanted nothing more than to disappear into Neverland, so I veered off the path and made my way to Siren Rock, which jutted over Smugglers Cove.”

Neverland is engaging and suspenseful, but also incredibly confronting. Margot doesn’t shy away from Kit’s self-harm, and at times it’s incredibly detailed and descriptive. Kit’s mental illness is also very well developed, and Margot shows the reader just how complicated mental illness is and how many layers there are to one’s mental health.

This school is for teenagers who are troubled, so the book explores more than just self-harm, but also anorexia and bi-polar disorder. This adds depth to the location in the book, and the dynamic between all of the characters. And these teenagers are not just navigating their way through their illness, but also their relationships, family and friendships. All of the this contributes to the rich layers in Neverland.

“The reason I couldn’t talk about my parents’ deaths was because I couldn’t remember. Which is odd, because I was there when it happened. Dissociative amnesia, Doc called it.”

Despite there being a few unrealistic elements to this story, in particular how these teenagers always manage to sneak out at night quite easily, there’s not much I can fault about Neverland. I found it brave and powerful, but also unique and a complete surprise. It’ll be an enjoyable read for all readers — young and old. I highly recommend this book.

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

Neverland
Margot McGovern
April 2018
Penguin Random House Australia

The Queen of Bloody Everything by Joanna Nadin

Dido Sylvia Jones is six years and twenty seven days old when she moves from London squat to suburban Essex and promptly falls in love with Tom Trevelyan, the boy next door. It’s not just him Dido falls for, though: it’s also his precocious sister, Harry, and their fastidious, controlling mother, Angela.

Because Angela is everything that Edie – Dido’s own mother – is not. And the Trevelyans are exactly the kind of family Dido dreams of.

Normal.

Which is what Dido wants to be, more than anything else in the world. But normal is the very thing Edie can never be, as Dido – and the Trevelyans, including Dido’s beloved Tom – will eventually learn the hard way.

The Queen of Bloody Everything by Joanna Nadin is a heartbreaking and heartwarming novel about family, relationships, and what it means to be ‘normal’.

This book explores the relationship between Dido and her mother Edie. Dido doesn’t know who her father is, and so it’s always been just her and her mother. And even though she loves Edie, even a young Dido knows that there’s something dysfunctional about their family. Edie is a single mother and she’s blunt, brazen, brash and defiant. She doesn’t conform to society’s expectations of her, but over time Dido learns to accept her mother for who she is.

The book is written in second-person, from Dido to her mother Edie. At first, the positioning is a little jolting for the reader, but I eased into the story quite quickly and I learnt to accept the second-person narration.

“Though you were there, I know you were — you wouldn’t let me go alone, although that was suggested when you refused to get dressed, and then refused to get into the Daimler. But in the end you came, in your pyjamas and jumper with a tutu skirt pulled over the trousers.”

We are introduced to Dido in the 1970s when she is six years’ old, and she has the energetic but unapologetic nature of most children. It makes for a fun and enjoying read.

As Dido grows older, we follow her journey through school and university. This book is not just about her tumultuous relationship with her mother. It’s about her friendship with Harry next door, and Harry’s brother Tom. Dido’s love for Tom lingers for most of her life, but their time together always seems short and fleeting. As the reader, you grow to love each of these characters and you keep reading because you want to find out how their stories end.

The Queen of Bloody Everything explores the notion of dreaming for another life. Dido grows up wishing her family was more like the Trevelyan family. She dreams of a different mother and a different home life. When Tom starts dating other girls, Dido dreams that she was his — that it was her who Tom chose.

“Small town, small minds,” you say, as now-to-be-neighbours watch us through twitching nets as we drag dustbin bags and old crisp boxes from the back of Maudsley Mick’s Transit. I stare back defiantly as I march up the path, ignoring the trail of tampons, playscripts, a potato masher that I leave in my wake.

Dido grows up, but she continues to come home and visit Edie. Despite her mother doing some truly awful things during Dido’s childhood, Dido doesn’t ever stay away for too long. Their relationship is difficult and complex, and readers will relate to this a lot.

The novel is full of wit and heart, and I highly recommend that everyone read this book. It was definitely a surprise for me — based on the blurb, I wasn’t anticipating that I would love this novel as much as I did.

“It’s as if someone has stripped and stood me under a spotlight. I am aware of every extra inch of me compared to her. What must it feel like to him, I wonder. Like kneading dough, maybe. Probably. And yet I don’t stop him.”

The Queen of Bloody Everything is tender and humorous, warm and entertaining. The characterisation is the book’s biggest strength; the reader falls in love with Dido and her friends, and even her mother Edie. You read the book wanting to know how their journeys will end, after all the decades that they’ve spent together.

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

The Queen of Bloody Everything
Joanna Nadin
February 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Coincidence Makers by Yoav Blum

The first thing you should know is: there’s no such thing as coincidence.

There are beings that watch over you. Some of us were like you, once. Call us what you will, guardians, agents, sentinels or perhaps spirits, angels, demons. No matter how you think of us, we have one purpose. We are architects of chance, we make coincidences.

Of course, a Coincidence Maker always has the choice: fulfil the coincidence, or refuse. So when an assignment of the highest level is slipped under the door one night, it’s immediately obvious that the choice will have to be made. A choice that could change our understanding of coincidences, of fate, free will, and even perhaps, love itself…

The Coincidence Makers by Yoav Blum is an imaginative novel that blends fantasy, love story and mystery. It allows the reader to experience the unknown and delve into a world we could only imagine.

Coincidence Makers exist to watch over humans — they help orchestrate life’s pivotal moments. They may cause you to spill you drink, miss your train, bump into someone, or catch the wrong bus.

However, all of these moments are orchestrated for a bigger purpose. Perhaps it’s because you’re actually a talented writer but in order for you to discover that, you need to lose your job. Perhaps you’re destined for true love, but you need to ‘meet’ them first and you aren’t capable of doing that on your own. Perhaps you’re set to make a medical breakthrough, but something in your life needs to change in order for you to do that. That’s where Coincidence Makers come in.

“Making coincidences is a delicate and complex art, full of details demanding the ability to juggle events, assess situations and responses, apply a basic lack of stupidity that is sometimes hard to find. You’ll need to use mathematics, physics, psychology…”

The reader will never look at coincidences the same, because something that we see as a ‘rare occurrence’ or a ‘chance meeting’ is actually something in the book that has been planned perfectly by someone with the skills to do it.

The main characters in The Coincidence Makers are Guy, Emily and Eric — all three of these people work for a secret supernatural organisation that creates and carries out coincidences. They spark significant changes in the lives of their ‘targets’. Assignments are slipped under their door, and they have to formulate a plan to achieve the specified goal.

The book has a really interesting and unique premise, and I actually found the book quite fascinating. It’s very clever and imaginative.

The book bends genres, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. I was so intrigued and so interested in this world that I read the book in only two sittings, flying through the pages and becoming completely absorbed in the characters and their stories.

“Pierre introduced himself as a rank five coincidence maker. Guy immediately understood what this meant. Pierre was a ‘Black Hat’ — responsible for particularly complex coincidences with extensive repercussions.”

I did think that it was a little slow to start, the pace only quickening halfway through and Yoav taking a little too long to explain the concept of coincidence makers to the reader. Once it got going though, I did really enjoy the story and the characters and how Yoav managed to weave all these different elements together.

Yoav has done a fantastic job of capturing the dynamic between Guy and Emily, and their history together. The dialogue is realistic and the narration is easy to read. The prose flows really well, and the length of the book is perfect for the story. Whilst it is slow to start, the pacing does get better.

I’d recommend this to lovers of literary fiction, but also mystery. The narrative moves around a fair bit, and there are some really surprising twists at the end of the story that would satisfy those of you who love a mystery/thriller novel.

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

The Coincidence Makers
Yoav Blum
March 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale

The Emporium opens with the first frost of winter. It is the same every year. Across the city, when children wake to see ferns of white stretched across their windows, or walk to school to hear ice crackling underfoot, the whispers begin: the Emporium is open! Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat…

It is 1917, and London has spent years in the shadow of the First World War. In the heart of Mayfair, though, there is a place of hope. A place where children’s dreams can come true, where the impossible becomes possible – that place is Papa Jack’s Toy Emporium.

For years Papa Jack has created and sold his famous magical toys: hobby horses, patchwork dogs and bears that seem alive, toy boxes bigger on the inside than out, ‘instant trees’ that sprout from boxes, tin soldiers that can fight battles on their own. Now his sons, Kaspar and Emil, are just old enough to join the family trade. Into this family comes a young Cathy Wray – homeless and vulnerable. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own. But Cathy is about to discover that while all toy shops are places of wonder, only one is truly magical…

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale is an enchanting, rich, emotional novel that is both historical fiction and a family saga.

Kaspar and Emil are two brothers who rival each other in their ability to design magnificent toys for their buyers. Their father, Papa Jack, spends a lot of his time in his workshop and doesn’t seem to venture down to the store very often. Both brothers compete with each other in their designs, and their ability to run the store.

Additionally, Kaspar and Emil compete for the affections of Cathy, a runaway teenager. She arrives at the Emporium at the beginning of Winter, and she captures the attention of both brothers. Over the coming months, both fall in love with her. Cathy is enchanted by the store and the brothers and all of their creations, and soon she chooses between the brothers.

“Around her, every aisle was garlanded in lights. High above, the Emporium dome was swirling with pinpoints of white, like a constantly falling snow. The arches that opened each aisle were wreathed in holly leaves of crepe paper and card; plump red berries of paper mache hung from every leaf.”

The Toymakers reminds me of The Night Circus, so if you liked that novel then you’ll most certainly love this one. It’s filled with wonder, imagination and magic, with rich characters that leap off the page and a story that encompasses decades.

The Toymakers takes us from 1917 to 1953, documenting the ups and downs of The Emporium and the magic within it. A major turning point in the novel is when Kaspar leaves for war and comes back a broken man many years later. His relationship with Cathy devolves, and his connection with his brother Emil appears to sever.

“It was the first frost of winter this morning. We don’t turn folk away, not on first frost.”

This is a novel for grown ups — adults who loved toys as a kid and loved the wonder of the unknown. This is for anyone who fell in love with gadgets or figurines or games, and who loved spending their pocket money in toy shops. The Toymakers is probably too advanced for a child to read, but the plot is friendly enough to young eyes in case they do decide they want to give it a try.

The writing is poetic and lyrical, flowing between paragraphs and allowing the reader to settle into the story easily. The Toymakers takes us on an enjoyable ride, not just within the walls of the shop but within London as well. Robert Drinsdale has packed so much into one book — this book moves through time quite quickly and so we follow Cathy through most of her life.

“The patchwork rabbit was a dainty thing. It had a key in its side that was slowly winding down and it hopped along, as rabbits do, until it found a few scraps of fabric left on the workshop floor. At these it bent down and started to eat.”

I did feel that Papa Jack could’ve been a much stronger character. Considering that this was his Emporium and he was known for his marvellous creations, he felt a little dry in the book and he didn’t seem to inspire or intrigue me at all. I found him quite mundane, actually.

Set in London in the 1900s, I recommend The Toymakers to those of you who love magic and all the possibilities of our imagination. This is as much a character-driven story as a plot-driven story; we experience the highs and lows of the Emporium family and the layered relationship between Emil and Kaspar. There is also a surprising twist at the end of the book that I rather enjoyed.

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

The Toymakers
Robert Dinsdale
March 2018
Penguin Random House Australia

Fallow by Daniel Shand

Two brothers elude a press witching by hiding out in the remote wilds of highland Scotland. As they travel, they move from one disturbing scenario to the next, eventually involving themselves with a bizarre religious cult. The power between the brothers begins to shift, and we realise there is more to their history.

One of them is a murderer. But it’s the other you have to watch out for…

Fallow is a darkly comic novel about the evolving relationship between two brothers — Paul and Mikey — and the terrible crime that both of them were involved in when they were young boys. This is a tense psychological thriller, deliberately making the reader feel uneasy and anxious about what is to come.

“My main concern that morning had been the tube of newspaper jammed into Sam’s armpit. I wasn’t able to make out the title but if it was a tabloid then Mikey was almost certainly somewhere inside.”

The cover of Fallow is incredibly striking, with orange and brown colours and a single image of a stag in an open field. It’s an inviting book, and I was intrigued. Fallow is under three hundred pages, so it doesn’t take too long to read the entire thing — in fact, I imagine some readers would be able to get through it in one sitting.

Fallow explores unreliable narration, manipulation and control. Paul lies and twists his explanation of events in order to control Mikey. In some parts of the novel, Micky commits horrific acts because he thinks he needs to, even though he doesn’t. Paul has lied to him and made Mikey fearful, to the point where Mikey has committed a crime for no reason.

And then, because of this, Paul has yet another thing that he can hold over Mikey. It’s a twisted relationship because Mikey feels guilty, but also confused. And over the course of the novel, he starts feeling indebted to Paul, even though he doesn’t need to.

“Mikey reached over and got him by the head and neck and I pulled his legs out from beneath him and we held his body and pushed and carried him out into the deeper water…we held the body until the water held it by itself.”

The strengths are Daniel’s writing. The prose flows so well and the imagery is beautiful. Just one sentence can say so much about the relationship between these two brothers; Daniel Shand has a real talent for using as few words as possible to convey the most meaning.

There are a few things about this novel that I know some readers won’t like. The pace is deliberately slow, to draw out the characterisation and to force the reader to anticipate what’s coming next. The plot is also a little stagnant, so there are a few times in the book where I was wondering where the story is going and why certain events were important to the overall plot.

But, the writing is beautiful and the two main characters are incredibly well-crafted and three-dimensional. Daniel Shand has done an excellent job of characterisation through actions, attitudes and dialogue.

I recommend Fallow to literary fiction lovers. Yes, there’s a fair bit of crime in the book. But it’s not your average crime or thriller novel. It’s a slow build, and it’s more character driven than plot driven. Some of you might be wondering what the point of it all is, but the ending to this novel is just extraordinary. It was surprising but also satisfying. This is a novel you have to stick with until the end.

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

Fallow
Daniel Shand
January 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

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