JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

And The Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness

The whales of Bathsheba’s pod live for the hunt. Led by the formidable Captain Alexandra, they fight a never-ending war against men. Then the whales attack a man ship, and instead of easy prey they find the trail of a myth, a monster, perhaps the devil himself…

With their relentless Captain leading the chase, they embark on the final hunt, one that will forever change the worlds of whales and men. From Patrick Ness, the multi-award-winning author of A Monster Calls, and CBCA Crichton Award-winning Australian artist Rovina Cai comes a haunting tale of power and obsession that turns the story of Moby Dick upside down.

And the Ocean was Our Sky is a powerful, moving tale by bestselling author Patrick Ness. Accompanied by gorgeous illustrations from Rovina Cai, Patrick’s story is from the point of view of a whale — Bathsheba. This story is a unique twist on the classic novel, Moby Dick.

War between humans and whales has been going for generations, each hunting the other. This book illustrates the trauma and death associated with war, and the reader comes to sympathise for Bathsheba. She is the third apprentice in a hunting pod to Captain Alexandra; they spend their days searching and destroying ships and humans. Bathsheba feels conflicted about their task, and struggles to understand the necessity of this war against humans.

“Let me be clear, right from the start. I hate the hunt but I loved it then. Now, of course, after all the occurred, after all are dead, after I waited for a rescue that might never come, no one would blame me for hating it.”

The book tells the story of the hunt for Toby Wick — an enemy so evil that no whale has ever met them and survived. Captain Alexandra is desperate to find and kill Toby Wick.

The illustrations are gorgeous. They mostly follow a soft use of the colours black, grey, white and red and they capture the mood of the story perfectly. Rovina is so talented and has done an exceptional job bringing this story to life.

As the hunting pod closes in on Toby, Bathsheba wrestles with his doubts and concerns. How necessary is this war? Is it worth all this death? As the reader, we know that this hunt will likely kill almost every character because Bathsheba hints at it right at the beginning of the book.

“Call me Bathsheba. It is not my name, but the name I use for this story. A name, I hoped, that would be free of prophecy, free of the burden of a future placed upon it, free of any destiny that would tear it from my hands and destroy worlds.”

Set in the depths of the ocean, this is a stunning, brilliant work. The prose is effortless and each sentence beautiful. I did find the first person narration confusing at first, and it did take me a short while to understand the dynamic and structure of the story, but apart from that I was completely absorbed in this story and it’s artwork.

And the Ocean Was Our Sky explores themes of loyalty, friendship, family, war and revenge.

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

And the Ocean Was Our Sky
Patrick Ness, illustrated by Rovina Cai
September 2018
Walkers Books Australia

Clean by Juno Dawson

When socialite Lexi Volkov almost overdoses, she thinks she’s hit rock bottom. She’s wrong. Because rock bottom is when she’s forced into an exclusive rehab facility.

From there, the only way is up for Lexi and her fellow inmates, including the mysterious Brady. As she faces her demons, Lexi realises love is the most powerful drug of all …

It’s a dirty business getting clean.

Clean by Juno Dawson is a young adult novel set inside an expensive rehab facility on a secluded island.

Clean is a really honest representation of recovering from addiction. There are setbacks. There are complications. There are relapses. Recovery is not a linear process.

I think it’s really important for teenagers to read about addiction and how it can affect your life, but I also think it’s really important for them to see what recovery looks like. It isn’t pretty.

“I check the other messages. Mummy asks how I am and is then sniffy when I haven’t replied. I do so now and tell her my phone was stolen by Muslim immigrants outside Clapham Junction. This plays gloriously into about nine of her prejudices.”

Lexi Volkov is a pretty horrible person — self-centred, cynical, judgemental, rude and incredibly privileged. She does grow over the course of the novel, but she is still incredibly flawed by the conclusion of the book.

She’s from a wealthy family and is adored and can get away with pretty much anything. Her brother Nikolai is the only person who wants her to take responsibility for her actions. She enters the exclusive rehab centre Clarity with a heroin addiction and meets other addicts who are all filthy rich and in need of recovery.

“I grab a rock and hurl it at the sliding doors. It pings off without even making a scratch. I try again, pelting stone after stone at the window. How sodding thick is the glass? By the time the nurses come running in, I’ve crumpled to the floor, my energy sapped. As they try to restrain me, I start to lash out with the now empty bowl.”

Juno Dawson tackles addiction with brutal honesty. There are many unpleasant moments in the novel. Each character in rehab is struggling with some sort of addiction, and their road to recovery is not going to be easy.

But at the same time, the book has heart. There are moments of humour and self-realisation. This book is as addictive as the drugs in the story, and I devoured the novel. I found myself really invested in the storylines and the character journeys. I wanted to know how each character was going to progress through the novel.

“I bristle at the quasi-religious flavour of that word. You don’t face temptation, you face life. Life is full of nice things that are bad for us. Temptation is just a fancy word for wanting them. It’s the same as ‘demons’. The first time someone says I have ‘demons’ I’m out of here. I don’t need an exorcist. I need a drink.”

The writing is incredibly compelling, enticing the reader with flawless dialogue, prose and pacing. The chapters are short and the cast intriguing. I wanted to know more about all of these characters, and they have been brought to life so vividly.

Juno has captured their voices so well — they’re all incredibly unique, and therefore you sympathise and empathise with them and you keep reading because you want to find out what happens.

I appreciate that Juno doesn’t romanticise illness or addiction. It’s important for these characters to recover, and not just mask their problems with a relationship. It’s rare to see that in young adult fiction, and it’s one of the things I loved about this novel.

Clean is described as Gossip Girl meets Girl, Interrupted and will appeal to fiction lovers and readers of contemporary young adult fiction. It’s hard-hitting, unapologetic, bold, ugly and compulsive.

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

Clean
Juno Dawson
April 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

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

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