JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

A Girl Made of Air by Nydia Hetherington

This is the story of The Greatest Funambulist Who Ever Lived…

Born into a post-war circus family, our nameless star was unwanted and forgotten, abandoned in the shadows of the big top. Until the bright light of Serendipity Wilson threw her into focus.

Now an adult, haunted by an incident in which a child was lost from the circus, our narrator, a tightrope artiste, weaves together her spellbinding tales of circus legends, earthy magic and folklore, all in the hope of finding the child… But will her story be enough to bring the pair together again?

Poetic, literary fiction that transcends generations, Nydia Hetherington’s A Girl Made of Air will captivate and entice readers.

Told from the perspective of a nameless narrator — she’s only ever nicknamed Mouse — A Girl Made of Air is primarily set within a circus. Our female narrator is born into a famous circus family. Her mother is a beautiful, revered and coveted performer, but is scarred from the birth of her child. After giving birth to the narrator, she is mentally unable to connect with her and does very little in her role as mother. The narrator’s only connection with a blood relative is her father, who is kind and communicative, but not overly forthcoming or parental in his nature.

The narrator bonds with a red-haired funambulist named Serendipity Wilson, and the two form a strong friendship. Serendipity’s training allows the narrator to achieve levels of success and fame that would not have been possible otherwise.

“I’ve grown tall like my mother, limbs stretched and long, but I’m ungainly. I don’t know how to manage my body, which, at now eleven years old (or thereabouts), has outgrown me. My walk is clumsy, off-kilter; my hands great shovels that swing hopelessly about, propelled seemingly without my instruction by over-long arms.”

The book follows an interesting structure. It opens in present day 1983, where the protagonist is well-known for her performative success. She’s in the midst of an interview with a journalist from The New York Times, talking about her career but also her connection with the mysterious Serendipity Wilson. After the interview is cut short, the protagonist then writes down the story of her life to date — emanating the feel of a memoir or a long-form letter, told chronologically. Interwoven throughout the novel are mythical tales that Serendipity herself passed along to our main character.

A chronological retelling felt like the most suitable structure for this book, because it allowed the present-day-protagonist to reflect on her past as she was telling her story. Interspersed throughout moments of memories, the protagonist will offer readers glimpses of insight. The ‘voice’ is mature and intelligent, and her reflection and hindsight allows for an engaging and attentive read.

“There are several blank pages after this. It’s odd that I should have left the pages blank. Maybe it was a statement, something about life being empty; the sort of thing young people do. This isn’t how I remember things. The events happened exactly as they’re written, yet I cannot find myself in the words.”

A Girl Made of Air features a strong cast of characters, sometimes so vibrant and lively they feel crafted as cartoons — Fausto the Ringmaster, Manu, Marina, Big Gen, and of course, the notorious Serendipity Wilson, who always feels a little out of reach and never fully understood (not a bad thing).

Serendipity is by far the most intriguing of the secondary characters. We only ever interact with her through the protagonist’s memories, so there are definitely holes in her personality, her backstory, and her feelings towards the man character that we never fully understand.

For a time, Serendipity is like a mother figure for our protagonist — attentive and maternal. But she’s also free and spritely, and galavants around on her own to live her own fantastical adventures. There’s definitely an obsession that forms, from our protagonist. She meddles in Serendipity’s life in ways that have ramifications many years after.

“I sat for a moment on a colourful lion, stroked its chipped nose. From there I could see over the encampment. The big top — a round, blue-and-white-striped leviathan with pointed tip, topped off with a jolly yellow flag that called to passers-by as it flapped in the breeze — dominated everything.”

Our protagonist may be flawed, but she’s also a child for most of the book so the reader empathises for her. She was raised in less-than-ideal circumstances, with a distanced and reclusive mother who never really loved her. You warm to the protagonist very early on, and you keep reading to find out how her tale progresses.

A Girl Made of Air is quirky and unusual, but also dark and inviting. Mythical and magical, and reflective of an apology — a plea for redemption. A Girl Made of Air is recommended for all readers.

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

A Girl Made of Air
Nydia Hetherington
September 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

Hermit by S.R. White

After a puzzling death in the wild bushlands of Australia, detective Dana Russo has just hours to interrogate the prime suspect – a silent, inscrutable man found at the scene of the crime, who disappeared without trace 15 years earlier.

But where has he been? Why won’t he talk? And exactly how dangerous is he? Without conclusive evidence to prove his guilt, Dana faces a desperate race against time to persuade him to speak. But as each interview spirals with fevered intensity, Dana must reckon with her own traumatic past to reveal the shocking truth . . .

S.R. White’s Hermit is an atmospheric and addictive psychological thriller. Set over the course of one day, detective Dana Russo has just 12 hours to interrogate the prime suspect in a murder case — a reclusive, mysterious man found at the scene of the crime, who hasn’t been seen or heard from in fifteen years and is reluctant to divulge any details to the police. Dana must follow her instincts to uncover the truth about the murder.

Set in rural Australia, S.R. White has captured the remote, secluded atmosphere of the desolate outback. Households are distanced but neighbours are nosy. Gossip runs rife through the town, and every family is hiding some sort of secret.

“Mike wasn’t veering towards the most common kinds of stabbings — drug arguments gone bad, gang wars, disrespected teenagers. Partly because they usually happened in the street, or at a location known to police already. Partly because those kinds of crimes rarely if ever happened just before dawn.”

With no CCTV, murder weapon or forensics to work with, Dana must rely on the suspect to reveal what happened, and it certainly makes for a unique crime novel.

Despite a great portion of the novel taking place within the walls of a police interview room, there are still a lot of divergence in setting. Dana and her colleagues interview different people around town — those relating to Lou and his wife, and those relating to the mysterious man found at the scene, Nathan.

The strength of this novel lies in the investigation — Dana illustrates great skill in reading other people, understanding their behaviour, and her ability to unpack Nathan’s psyche proves fascinating and enjoyable. Every conversation feels like a carefully constructed game of cat and mouse, tension rising and falling, pacing altering with every passing page. My attention never wavered.

“Because of the solitary stab wound, Dana had expected the knife to be on the floor. A single stab in panic, in the midst of a scuffle, usually prompted the stabber to drop the blade and flee. At the very least, they let go in shock at what they’d done, or in disbelief that the person in front of them was dying. That didn’t seem to have happened here.”

The concept of the ‘hermit’ is an interesting one, and executed in a way that felt fresh to the genre. I was fascinated to find out more about Nathan’s history. Where has he been for 15 years? How has he survived? Why did he leave and what dangers will suddenly arise now that he’s resurfaced?

Additionally, Hermit subtly explores themes of mental health and suicide. In the opening chapter, Dana is sitting atop a cliff contemplating plunging to her and death and trying to make it look like an accident. Every year, on this exact day, she takes annual leave and spends all day trying to decide if she should kill herself. It’s an incredibly vulnerable time for Dana, and when she’s thrust into a murder investigation unexpectedly, it throws her plans. Readers will feel a close kinship with Dana, even if they don’t necessarily relate to her. She’s intelligent and bolshy, but she also evokes empathy and sympathy in the reader.

“No response. Although he shivered: seemingly involuntarily, judging by his slight grimace. Any body language, any inflection — let alone any comment — appeared to him an unconscionable degree of exposure on his part. Perhaps he would prefer total darkness, or to be a disembodied voice: being visible and tangible was apparently unfamiliar, worrying.”

Admittedly, I found the ending a little unsatisfying. The concept of the ‘day’ that Dana keeps talking about, and what it means for her, fizzles out in the end, with no real resolution. Additionally, we’re set up to find out some of Dana’s backstory but it’s only partly revealed and feels like an info dump — unnatural, jolting.

Despite these minor flaws, I really enjoyed Hermit. An original, gripping and captivating thriller that readers will love. Recommended for fans of crime, thriller and mystery.

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

Hermit
S.R. White
September 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda

Everyone knows the story of the girl from Widow Hills.

When Arden Mayes was six years old, she was swept away in terrifying storm and went missing for days. Against all odds, she was found alive, clinging to a storm drain. A living miracle. Arden’s mother wrote a book, and fame followed. But so did fans, creeps and stalkers. It was all too much, and as soon as she was old enough, Arden changed her name and left Widow Hills behind.

Now, a young woman living hundreds of miles away, Arden is known as Olivia. With the twentieth anniversary of her rescue looming, media interest in the girl who survived is increasing. Where is she now? The stress brings back the night terrors of Olivia’s youth. Often, she finds herself out of bed in the middle of the night, sometimes outside her home, even streets away. Then one evening she jolts awake in her yard, with the corpse of a man at her feet.

The girl from Widow Hills is about to become the centre of the story, once again.

Megan Miranda’s The Girl from Widow Hills is a fast-paced psychological thriller about a young woman forced to face her traumatic but mysterious past when a dead body is discovered on her property.

At 6 years old, Arden Maynor got caught in a flash flood whilst sleepwalking. She miraculously survived in a storm drain for three days and was found clinging to a grate. Fame followed her for years and so when she got older, she changed her name to Olivia Wells and moved to rural North Carolina.

Now 26 and a hospital administrator, Olivia works hard to keep her past hidden. Until that body ends up outside her house and she’s thrust back into the spotlight once again, the media circus returning to her front door.

“I was too young to really remember, and too much time had passed anyway, the trauma buried under so many layers that it existed only in the psychological reactions: the flutter of my pulse as the doors slid shut in an elevator; a ringing in my ears in the darkness of a movie theatre before the first trailer kicked in…”

A lot of this book explores unprocessed trauma — memory loss, murky childhood events, and the unreliability of Olivia’s mind. The Girl from Widow Hills also explores the media’s obsession with these survival stories, people who escape the inescapable. And then the media feel they’re owed updates in the years to follow. They don’t always care for the life that person is trying to lead, away from the limelight.

The writing is sleek and effecting. Narrative devices propel the story forward, red herrings keep you guessing, and the carefully woven twists and turns keep you enthralled. The cast is large enough that there’s room to suspect just about anyone of anything, and there’s enough mystery to keep the readers guessing.

The book is scattered with additional narrative elements that help carve a bigger picture surrounding Olivia’s childhood, such as newspaper articles, interview transcripts, police reports, and publicity coverage. Slowly, we’re able to piece together what happened to Olivia as a child, and how that connects to the dead body she found on her boundary line.

“There was a visceral reaction to speaking about the past. Something I’d long gone out of the way to contain. A shaking that started in my fingers, a tremor that worked its way through my body, though no one seemed to notice but me. The precursor to panic; something that seized my mind and body alike.”

Truthfully, I think there’s a bit of disconnect between the reader and Olivia. You spend so much of the book trying to understand her past, and her memories from when she was six, that I don’t feel like you really get to connect with her as an adult. Olivia comes across as distant — a little stiff and boring. You never really feel a huge range of emotions coming from Olivia, it’s mainly an observant kind of POV, assessing the events around her. Readers will follow along for the mystery, not for the characters.

“Everyone tried to act normal when I arrived at the hospital. Faces that were either too friendly, or people who averted their gaze entirely, pretending to be absorbed in their phones. I had found a dead body outside my house, and everyone knew it.”

Admittedly, the ending is a little far-fetched and rushed but by then you’re so seduced by the story, you don’t really care.

Recommended for fans of thrillers, crime and psychological suspense novels.

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

The Girl from Widow Hills
Megan Miranda
August 2020
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The Erasure Initiative by Lili Wilkinson

A girl wakes up on a self-driving bus. She has no memory of how she got there or who she is. Her nametag reads CECILY. The six other people on the bus are just like her: no memories, only nametags. There’s a screen on each seatback that gives them instructions.

A series of tests begin, with simulations projected onto the front window of the bus. The passengers must each choose an outcome; majority wins. But as the testing progresses, deadly secrets are revealed, and the stakes get higher and higher. Soon Cecily is no longer just fighting for her freedom – she’s fighting for her life.

Lili Wilkinson’s The Erasure Initiative is a YA psychological thriller that explores human behaviour, morality and ethical decision-making. The novel is also highly entertaining and set within a high-stakes, high-pressure environment. The Erasure Initiative ponders the possibility of using the trolley problem to re-align criminal behaviour.

Seven people wake on a driverless bus with no memory of who they are and how they got there. Our protagonist, Cecily, soon forms strong bonds with the handsome young Paxton and the brash but tech-savvy Nia. A series of hypothetical situations forces the group to come together in an unpredictable, and at times manipulative manner.

“The seatback displays don’t offer us any new information. We pace up and down the aisle. Check over everything a few more times. Hunger makes everyone jitter and snap at each other. Riley’s knee bounces up and down incessantly, and I want to yell at him, but I don’t, because I’m scared of his clumsy tattoos and scars.”

I’ve read quite a few of Lili’s books, including her other psychological thrillers After the Lights Go Out and The Boundless Sublime and I always find the twists and reveals to be incredibly clever. I genuinely don’t see them coming, so big ticks for that.

The trolley problem is only interesting and engaging the first few times you do it, so I was intrigued to find out how Lili was going to keep a reader engaged for at least 70,000 words. After the first couple of trolley problems I was bracing myself for repetition, but Lili manages to switch the rules and change the game with each chapter. I’m happy to admit my prediction was wrong.

“Inertia hurls me forward. I have just enough time to throw my hands up to protect my face as I collide with the windscreen, my body doing its damnedest to continue its forward trajectory through space. I close my eyes in involuntary defence as my face smashes into my hands, and my wrists and elbows and hips connect with the glass.”

I do think some characters were so engaging and dominant that a few characters on the bus got drowned out as a result. Riley is one of them — I kind of forgot about him until his character reached their pivotal moment. Catherine was also a bit of a sly fox, disappearing into the pages (although I’m certain that was intentional). And Edwin is a lot more interesting (and relevant) towards the end of the novel — he felt a little lost in the first half of the book.

The dynamic between Cecily and Nia is an interesting one, and something that develops really well over the course of the novel. I think Lili has done a great job of capturing the premise of missing memories very well. Being in Cecily’s head feels like climbing inside a toddler learning to walk. You can’t really look away.

“This time only Sandra chooses to save the person. I choose NO, because if Edwin’s right and the dickhead who’s behind this is trying to compare our answers, then I’m going to screw with him by always choosing NO.”

Admittedly, at times the dialogue felt a bit preach-y and like the author’s views on certain societal issues were poking through the novel. Additionally, with such a small cast of characters — there’s really only seven of them — Lili manages to tick a lot of diverse minority boxes and sometimes it felt a bit like it was approaching being tokenistic.

Compelling and enthralling right until the final page, The Erasure Initiative is recommended for fans of thriller and mystery. I don’t think this book is limited to YA readerships; adults and young readers alike with find themselves absorbed in this premise.

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

The Erasure Initiative
Lili Wilkinson
August 2020
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and out manoeuvre his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favour or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute… and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Fans of The Hunger Games will remember Coriolanus Snow as the ruthless and fascist President of Panem. In Suzanne Collins’ prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, readers will come to understand his backstory — how did Snow go from teenager to bitter tyrant?

In this setting, the Capitol are up to their 10th Hunger Games and things are very different from how we see them over sixty years later. Nobody is watching the Games, especially in the poorer districts where they don’t even have televisions. The Capitol need to switch things up to increase excitement in the games, and Snow has a natural ability to ponder disastrous ways to engage new audiences.

There are three parts to the novel — Snow meeting Lucy Gray and gearing up for the Hunger Games, the Hunger Games themselves, and then afterwards, where Snow spends time in District 12 with his friend Sejanus and Snow’s humanity slowly starts to dissipate.

“Could there be a bigger slap in the face?” Coriolanus wonders. “District 12, the smallest district, the joke district, with its stunted, joint-swollen kids that always died in the first five minutes, and not only that . . . but the girl?”

Lucy Gray is a fascinating and complex character — she’s a talented singer with the charm and confidence to fascinate the Hunger Games crowds. Fans will find joy when they realise that the songs we learnt in The Hunger Games — The Hanging Tree, for example — were written and sung by Lucy Gray. We come to understand the history and the significance of these songs, which is a nice touch.

Because the book is written in third person, we experience events as Snow does and we never really come to understand what’s going on inside his mind. We witness as he betrays friends and kills people, but we never experience his thoughts or conflicts and it’s both a clever and chilling stylistic device.

“He’d been to the arena several times as a small boy, to see the circus, mostly, but also to cheer military displays under his father’s command. For the past nine years he’d watched at least part of the Games on television.”

This book explores the evolution of Snow but is also explores the evolution of the Hunger Games. In the beginning, we understand just how uninterested people are in them. The Capitol want to use the games to exert control over the districts, but they can’t quite work out how to do that. By the end, Snow has plenty of ideas on how to increase obsession with the Hunger Games, and it gives readers a chilling premonition because we know just how successful the Hunger Games end up being.

The novel isn’t without its flaws. The pacing was inconsistent. It takes a long time before the Games start, and they don’t actually go for that long. And then we follow a rather slow journey to the climax of the story. Whilst I loved the ending and truly felt surprised by the story of Lucy Gray and the conclusion to her tale (not a spoiler), I felt a little cheated that it took so long to get there.

Additionally, I never believed Snow’s hatred for mockingjays. It felt like it was put into the story purely to provide another connection to The Hunger Games.

“Some of the tributes dropped in their seats, chins almost on their chests, but the more defiant ones tilted their heads back and surveyed the hall. It was one of the most impressive chambers in the Capitol, and several mouths gaped open, awed by the grandeur of the marble columns, the arched windows, the vaulted ceiling.”

Recommended for fans of The Hunger Games. You’ll find yourself captivated by the setting and the story, and engaged long enough to see the story through to the end. 14+

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

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Suzanne Collins
May 2020
Scholastic Publishers Australia