JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Evermore (Everless #2) by Sara Holland

The highly anticipated sequel to New York Times bestseller, Everless!

Jules Ember was raised hearing legends of the ancient magic of the wicked Alchemist and the good Sorceress. But she has just learned the truth: not only are the stories true, but she herself is the Alchemist, and Caro—a woman who single-handedly murdered the Queen and Jules’s first love, Roan, in cold blood—is the Sorceress.

The whole kingdom believes that Jules is responsible for the murders, and a hefty bounty has been placed on her head. And Caro is intent on destroying Jules, who stole her heart twelve lifetimes ago. Jules must delve into the stories that she now recognizes are accounts of her own past. For it is only by piecing together the mysteries of her lives that Jules will be able to save the person who has captured her own heart in this one.

Return to the intoxicating land of Sempera, where the rich live for centuries and the poor bleed time to pay for a loaf of bread. Can the Alchemist overcome the Sorceress once and for all?

Evermore is the second and final book in the YA fantasy duology from Sara Holland, picking up where things left off in Everless. If you haven’t read Everless, this review will be filled with spoilers — you are warned!

Last year, I read and loved Everless, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating reading the sequel and reviewing it for the blog. I’ve read quite a lot of negative reviews online, but I liked this sequel. Did I think it was truly amazing? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Did I feel it wrapped up the storyline in a satisfying manner? Yes.

Despite there being a lot of travel in this book (like many fantasy sequels), the pacing is quick and the stakes are high, and the tension rises with each passing chapter. There was a lot of history in this book — Jules explores her past and her connection to Caro, to find out what their backstory is and how they’re destined to cross paths in every lifetime. This element may not be for everyone but I found it incredibly necessary to the storyline, and I really enjoyed it.

“Liam Gerling flits across my mind again, the complete belief in his eyes when he stood in an open field and told me I was the Alchemist. I wish he were beside me, if only to show Amma that I’m not mad. Not yet.”

Jules and Caro are pretty far removed for most of the novel, which sometimes drags the novel. The confrontation at the conclusion is satisfying, but I would’ve liked the climax to be a little more drawn out and brought earlier into the story. It felt really rushed. We do spend a lot of time exploring Jules and Caro’s backstories and while this is important, other elements of the story could’ve perhaps been embedded throughout to break up the storyline and ensure the reader’s attention didn’t waver.

The concept of blood being exchanged as currency wasn’t used very frequently in the story, and that saddened me. That concept felt truly original and it was one of my favourite things about Everless — it completely hooked me into picking up the series.

However, its lack of presence in this book just highlights how cut-off Jules is from the rest of civilisation. She’s often in the middle of nowhere, travelling somewhere that will give her answers to her past and her connection with Caro. It was a necessary sacrifice, I’m sure, but something I dearly missed.

“As she speaks, she dances out of the way of all my blows, her movements quick and graceful and efficient. She doesn’t seem to be trying to hurt me, but I realize that we’re closer together now than before. Caro is luring me to her — just like she lured me here, I think bitterly, foolishly.”

Something about this book felt so different to the first one, and not always in a good way. I think Evermore felt more generic, more like stereotypical fantasy than Everless did. And I’m sure that has something to do with the structure of the book. Jules is on a journey for most of the book — she’s travelling a lot and she’s learning a lot of information about her past and its significance, and she’s keeping a low profile. It feels pretty similar to a lot of other fantasy books.

That, combined with the fact that Sara Holland’s incredible magic system from book one doesn’t really get prime position, made for a slightly less-than-impressive sequel.

“My stomach lurched. A year. And these people don’t even care; they’re laughing and smiling as they roll up their sleeves, exposing their arms and palms like fish bellies to the dancing candlelight of the hall. Their flesh is smooth. Unblemished. No signs of having been bled before.”

Two books felt like the appropriate amount for this story — I actually was expecting this to be a trilogy, not thinking too much about it, until I neared the end of Evermore and realised that the story was wrapping up! I really appreciated that. Not all fantasy series need to be 3+ books.

I recommend this series to YA fantasy readers. It sits pretty comfortably in that space, so I feel confident that readers who love and regularly read fantasy will be the core audience for this series.

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

Evermore (Everless #2)
Sara Holland
August 2019
Hachette Book Publishers

The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood

Where Romy grew up, if someone died you never spoke of them again.

Now twenty-two, she has recently escaped the toxic confines of the cult she was raised in. But Romy is young, pregnant and completely alone – and if she is to keep herself safe in this new world, she has some important lessons to learn.

Like how there are some people you can trust, and some you must fear. And about who her family really is, and why her mother ran away from them all those years ago.

And that you can’t walk away from a dark past without expecting it to catch up with you…

The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood is a suspenseful novel about the dark and dangerous world of cults. When the majority of the members of a dark and secretive Doomsday cult are found dead in an apparent poisoning suicide, the sole adult survivor, Romy, must learn to navigate the real world. She’s 22, pregnant, and full of secrets. What really happened at Plas Golau and how did everyone die?

The structure of the novel is what will keep readers utterly absorbed in the story. The novel switches back and forth, between past and present. Slowly, we come to understand what Pla Golau was really like, who was in charge, how the commune ran, and how they all died.

We come to realise just how brainwashed all the cult members were. They’re all preparing for the end of the world, but there are many cracks in the foundation of their cult. Everyone is assigned chores each day, with strict rules that they must follow. Lucien (Father) chooses a new girl each solstice to begin sexual relations with in the hope of getting her pregnant. But no one seems to question how young the girls are, and how Lucien only seems to choose the attractive ones each year.

Romy’s mother joined the cult when Romy was a baby, and so Romy is never considered very special because she wasn’t ‘created’ in the commune. However, her mother gives birth to two children while in the cult and the middle child — Eden — is the daughter of Lucien. And she’s doted upon by the other cult members. Even after the mass suicide, when Romy, Eden and their brother Ilo are still alive and trying to navigate the real world, Eden has a sense of entitlement. She thinks she’s some sort of saviour because Lucien is her father.

“It is very quiet. Not really. It’s just a completely different sort of loud from the rural sounds of Plas Golau. The sound of traffic outside, the rumble of the machines downstairs. I have the windows open, for the heat is stifling on a sunny day in October.”

Alex Marwood builds tension and unease really skilfully — as you read the storyline of the past, you can see the deaths coming. You can also sense a lot of other incredibly problematic and disturbing things that are happening within the cult.

There are a group of vile boys who make a habit of preying on young, drunk girls whenever the cult celebrates the solstice with a boozy party. Lucien’s son returns to the cult — now an adult — and he appears to have a hidden agenda. And whenever children die, which seems to happen fairly often, their bodies disappear and they are never spoken about again.

The writing is sharp and evocative. The reader gets a strong sense of place from The Poison Garden — Alex Marwood has done a fantastic job of capturing the entire world of Plas Golau. I found it easy to imagine all of it. Personally, I loved the ‘past’ storyline more than the present storyline, but I think that’s because of my fascination with cults.

“She stays until she’s sure I’m not going to burn myself to death. She shows me how to work the gas cooker, how to turn on the TV and where the meters are for the payment keys, and advises me to clean the fridge before I put anything in it.”

The only flaw I noticed with the book is the characterisation of Aunt Sarah. SPOILER ALERT: the evolution of her character doesn’t make much sense to me, and I felt like it didn’t fit in with how she was initially presented to readers. She’s a single woman whose reckless sister left the family decades earlier after falling pregnant at a young age. She distanced herself from her parents, and when the mass suicide happens at Plas Golau, Sarah’s sister is named as one of the dead.

Sarah’s niece and nephew — Ilo and Eden — are suddenly landed with her from social services. They’re teenagers but completely clueless about how the world works. They’re obviously very traumatised and disturbed by their years in the cult. Sarah is overwhelmed by their presence in her life, but she wants the best for them. She’s helpful, instructive, and she fights on their behalf when there are issues at school.

But then, and this is seriously spoilery, at the end of the novel she follows Romy and Ilo to a commune established by another dangerous cult leader. What? Huh? Why is Sarah there? I understand Romy and Ilo’s motivations, but Sarah? That ending didn’t feel organic. Sarah doesn’t seem like the kind of character who would join a cult.

“He squalls his way into the world when the fruit harvest is at its height and Romy doesn’t hear about it, or notice that her mother is missing, for two days. Anyone at Plas Golau who can walk and understand simple instructions is out in the orchards, and his birth has attracted none of the pleasurable anticipation that Eden’s did.”

Despite that, I highly recommend The Poison Garden, particularly if you’re intrigued by suspense, thriller, secrets, and cults.

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

The Poison Garden
Alex Marwood
August 2019
Hachette Book Publishers

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle by Sophie Green

It’s 1982 in Australia. The Man from Snowy River is a box office hit and Paul Hogan is on the TV.

In a seaside suburb, housewife Theresa takes up swimming. She wants to get fit; she also wants a few precious minutes to herself. So at sunrise each day she strikes out past the waves.

From the same beach, the widowed Marie swims. With her husband gone, bathing is the one constant in her new life.

After finding herself in a desperate situation, 25-year-old Leanne only has herself to rely on. She became a nurse to help others, even as she resists help herself.

Elaine has recently moved from England. Far from home and without her adult sons, her closest friend is a gin bottle.

In the waters of Shelly Bay, these four women find each other. They will survive bluebottle stings and heartbreak; they will laugh so hard they swallow water, and they will plunge their tears into the ocean’s salt. They will find solace and companionship, and learn that love takes many forms. Most of all, they will cherish their friendship, each and every day.

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle is the latest novel from Australian author Sophie Green, this time introducing us to a fantastic group of women who bond over their love of the water.

The book is set in 1980s NSW, but there is so much about these women and their lives that can be understood by readers who may not have memories of the 1980s. These four women confront loss, grief, relationships, family, adultery, friendships, addictions, and mental health. Sophie Green explores these issues with sensitivity and compassion. You don’t need to live in a certain time period to understand these things — all readers will be able to understand or relate to a least a couple of the themes present in the book, and the discussions that are had between the women.

Swimming brings these four women together at a time when they’re all in need of friends. Theresa is married to a philandering, arrogant man and takes on the majority of the household responsibilities. Andrew doesn’t help out with the two kids, and Theresa is at a loss.

Marie is still mourning the death of her husband five years ago, and her best friend has recently moved quite some distance away — Marie is lonely.

Leanne recently moved to Shelly Bay and is a paediatric nurse at the local hospital. But, she finds it hard to connect with people. She’s distanced from her parents and her family, and she has quite a few skeletons in her closet that she struggles to talk about. She certainly struggles connecting with men, and hasn’t ever had a boyfriend.

Elaine is an alcoholic whose husband works all the time. She’s new to the country — having recently moved here from England — and she’s missing her sons. She turns to the bottle to comfort her loneliness.

“She really doesn’t want to play with them again, but she hasn’t managed to find another group activity that suits her, and if she doesn’t play tennis she will have absolutely no one to talk to apart from James, who works all day and half the night.”
ELAINE

Sophie Green is a really skilled writer, bringing these women to life and making the reader fall in love with each of them. The book switches POV between the four women, and despite the fact these women are all different ages and at different stages in their lives and their careers, their voices and stories are all so unique that you never grow tired of the plot, or of the writing.

Friendship is the dominant theme in the book, and is executed incredibly well. Women in particular will be able to relate to the close connections that these women form with each other over the course of the novel. The four women become a support network for each other, helping the others overcome the emotional and physical hurdles that they’re facing in their lives.

“Today is the day. After her lessons, and Matt’s reassurances that her freestyle is ‘coming along nicely’, Leanne is ready to swim in the ocean. With Theresa and her friends.”

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle shows us that we shouldn’t bury our pain or hide our struggles — we should learn to trust in others, and confront what it is that’s causing our pain. The book also highlights the importance of having quality friends, and that it’s never too late to build friendships and relationships with others.

Theresa, Marie, Leanne and Elaine share a lot of heartache in the book, but they also share a lot of laughs and tender moments. They grow over the course of the novel — not just their relationships with others, but their relationships with themselves.

“They’re always like this on the nights when Andrew doesn’t arrive home in time for dinner. They never say anything about him not being there, yet they cling harder to her. They want all of her time, and they’ll fight sleep to get it.”
THERESA

The setting of the novel is captured really strongly in the pages, and readers will easily be able to imagine the picturesque Shelly Bay location — even if they’ve never been to Sydney or Shelly Bay.

Sophie Green’s latest novel is just as satisfying as The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club — readers who like historical fiction, romance, and family sagas will enjoy this book.

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

The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle
Sophie Green
August 2019
Hachette Book Publishers

The Astrid Notes by Taryn Bashford

Astrid Bell
Dutiful daughter. Classical singer. Secret pop songwriter. And suffering from stage fright.

Jacob Skalicky.
Trust-fund kid. Indie singer. Immensely gifted performer. And refusing to sing again.

Are they polar opposites? In his grief and fury at the world, Jacob certainly thinks so. But when Jacob loses everything and Astrid uncovers a shocking family secret, they may need each other to make sense of their lives.

The Astrid Notes is the second YA novel from Queensland author Taryn Bashford, this time set within the complex and high-pressure world of music and singing.

Jacob — who readers may remember from The Harper Effect — is navigating his way through a difficult time. After a late night gig, his fellow band members all die in a car accident. Jacob has survivor’s guilt, feeling like he’s lost his purpose and he starts to give up on his music and his singing.

To make everything worse, Jacob’s parents are fairly absent from his life but his father is constantly pressuring him to reconsider his career and his path, and to give up on this music dream of his. His father is a bully, and the reader can physically feel the effect that his father is having on Jacob’s physical and mental state.

Astrid is conflicted about many things. She’s an incredibly talented opera singer but she has stage fright and she doesn’t know how to fix it. She’s six months shy of 18, which is when her father promised to tell her how her mother died, but she wants to know now. Why does she have to wait? Astrid assumes her mother —who was an extraordinarily talent singer as well — died giving birth to her, and Astrid feels an enormous amount of guilt about this.

Naturally, when Astrid and Jacob’s paths cross, they have much in common.

“Four days after breaking my hand. I bite the bullet and am standing outside the doc’s house listening to Astrid sing. I like her sound even more than I like Yolanda Gustav. How can someone so small pack that much power?”
JACOB

The Astrid Notes explores some pretty heavy topics — death, alcoholism, depression, and parental pressure. I imagine there’ll be many readers out there who could find some comfort in what these characters are going through.

The POV shifts between Jacob and Astrid quite often — sometimes after only two pages — and I think the characterisation within these short moments was managed really well. From the beginning, we understand the characters’ motivations, their fears and their worries, and how their interactions with other people is a reflection of their struggle to overcome the issues they’ve been going through.

“Something has changed. He’s changed. It’s as if the older I get, the more the unpredictable side of him is taking over. Mr Maestro’s winning. It’s like living inside my own opera and the demon has gained ground. And I’m to sing, whether I want to or not.”
ASTRID

I think what does let this book down is some of the jarring references to pop culture that date the book and add nothing to the character’s inner dialogue. It makes the text read a little too juvenile for the characters, and the references do feel out of place — if there was no way to seamlessly weave them in, then I think they should’ve been culled in the editing.

“As always, I lost that argument. Should’ve kept my mouth shut because I probably made everything worse. Like the main character in a Step Up movie, I either pass this audition or my music dreams are over.”
JACOB

“I’m small, so being engulfed by Maestro has always felt like being hugged by the hero at the end of a movie or when the music score from the final scene of Lord of the Rings blasts in your head and you’re sure everything’s going to end well.”
ASTRID

A heartwarming and engaging follow up to The Harper Effect, with loveable, relatable characters and a rich plot. Taryn Bashford captures the world of elite music with authenticity. You’ll fall in love with Astrid and Jacob from the beginning, all the way through to the last pages. Recommend for young readers, 12+

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

The Astrid Notes
Taryn Bashford
July 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Elwood Curtis has taken the words of Dr Martin Luther King to heart: he is as good as anyone. Abandoned by his parents, brought up by his loving, strict and clearsighted grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But given the time and the place, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy his future, and so Elwood arrives at The Nickel Academy, which claims to provide ‘physical, intellectual and moral training’ which will equip its inmates to become ‘honorable and honest men’.

In reality, the Nickel Academy is a chamber of horrors, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse is rife, where corrupt officials and tradesmen do a brisk trade in supplies intended for the school, and where any boy who resists is likely to disappear ‘out back’. Stunned to find himself in this vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr King’s ringing assertion, ‘Throw us in jail, and we will still love you.’ But Elwood’s fellow inmate and new friend Turner thinks Elwood is naive and worse; the world is crooked, and the only way to survive is to emulate the cruelty and cynicism of their oppressors.

The tension between Elwood’s idealism and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision which will have decades-long repercussions.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead is an extraordinary literary novel based on a real reform school in Florida during the Jim-Crow-era that operated for 111 years and destroyed the lives of thousands of children.

In the acknowledgements page, Colson Whitehead talks about the inspiration for this book — the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. Archaeology students at the University of South Florida dug up an area surrounding the school and uncovered a secret graveyard. The students worked to identify the remains of countless students who had been tortured, raped, mutilated, and then buried beneath the ground.

In The Nickel Boys, the institution is called Nickel Academy, with two segregated establishments — one campus is for coloured boys, and the other is for white boys.

Protagonist Elwood Curtis was abandoned by his mother and left in the care of his loving, compassionate grandmother Harriet. He’s now in high school. He’s driven, intelligent, and he has his eyes set on graduating from the local community college. But one mistake — hitchhiking — lands him in Nickel Academy. The driver, Rodney, has stolen the car they’re riding in, and Elwood is considered guilty.

“There were three of them. The biggest one he’d seen last night, the boy who looked too old to attend Nickel. The giant was named Griff; in addition to his mature appearance, he was broad-chested and hunched like a big brown bear. Griff’s daddy, it was said, was on a chain gang in Alabama for murdering his mother, making his meanness a handed-down thing.”

Set in 1960s Florida, the book highlights segregation and the racism that was rife during that time. A black person could be arrested for not giving way to a white person on the sidewalk. Black people did things for free, and white people benefited.

Nickel Academy is technically not a prison, and boys usually don’t stay longer than 1-2 years in the place, but it is a nightmare, hellish place to live. When boys misbehave, they’re plucked from their beds in the middle of the night and taken to a former work shed called the White House.

Here, boys are strapped into a three-foot-long contraption called Black Beauty, and beaten. They’re whipped, stretched, and abused. The boys’ screams can be heard by everyone in Nickel Academy. Additionally, ‘out back’ is where the cruel and vicious staff take the boys who they plan to murder and bury beneath the ground.

“He spent another five days in the hospital, then it was back with the other Nickel boys. School and work. He was one of them now in many ways, including his embrace of silence. When his grandmother came to visit, he couldn’t tell her what he saw when Dr. Cooke removed the dressings and he walked the cold tile to bathroom.”

Whitehead is skilled at moving back and forth in time, seamlessly. We learn more about Elwood and his family as we progress through the novel. There are snippets here and there of his former life, his mother and father’s lives, and his childhood with his grandmother.

The prose is very elegant, lean and pared back — it’s a short book at 200 pages, and quick to read. The plot is riveting, drawing you in and refusing to let you go. I adore both Elwood and his best friend Turner, who are so different but find each other within the horrors of Nickel Academy.

Reading The Nickel Boys has encouraged me to purchase The Underground Railroad, which I had not gotten around to reading yet.

The Nickel Boys is one of my favourite reads of the year. As hard as the subject matter is to read at times, the writing is fantastic and eloquent, the characters larger-than-life. Highly recommended.

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

The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead
July 2019
Hachette Book Publishers

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