JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Outcast by Taran Matharu

Enter an immersive world where the chosen few have the ability to summon demons …

Arcturus is just an orphaned stable boy when he discovers he has the ability to summon demons from another world. He is sent to Vocans Academy where the lost arts of summoning, spell craft and demonology are taught to the noble children of the Empire.

As the first commoner gifted with this ability, his discovery challenges the nobility and the powers that be and Arcturus soon makes enemies. With no one but his demon Sacharissa by his side, Arcturus must prove himself as a worthy Summoner …

The Outcast by Taran Matharu is the prequel novel to the bestselling children’s fantasy series, Summoner. It’s about young kids who have the rare gift of being able to summon demons from another world.

This novel is most enjoyable, taking the reader on a fun, adventurous journey full of orcs, dwarves, demons and magic. Whilst the characterisation is pretty weak — the characters are not really relatable and their motivations seem very stereotypical — the pacing is great. Each chapter ends on a note that wants you to keep reading, and the book definitely drew comparisons to the Harry Potter series.

‘Prince Harold, why do you think your father has sent me away?’
‘Lord Forsyth, the reasons are threefold. The first is that in the last dwarven rebellion, the noble families suffered several deaths, and this could happen again if the ongoing altercations with the orcs become any worse. With commoners to swell our ranks, we will be able to take fewer risks, giving the more dangerous missions to them.”

At its core, the novel explores racism and prejudice. Everyone is so surprised that a commoner has the ability to summon a demon, but they treat Arcturus terribly and two students even try to kill him. However, over the course of the novel, Arcturus learns to trust other students and he forms strong friendships with a few other kids in the academy.

The novel is subject to quite a few significant flaws. It’s unrealistic how Arcturus is privy to so much sensitive information, even from the the beginning of the book. This is noticeable in most scenes where Obadiah is present — a powerful man like that wouldn’t tell him as much as he does, and he wouldn’t have his students discussing and understanding all of the political knowledge of the land and school. It feels a lot like an info dump to the reader.

“Now he could see the animals, like the deer of the north but with twisting horns and a ribbon of black separating their white-furred bellies and the sandy coat above. They were strange creatures to be sure, and he had no idea what they were.”

Arcturus actually spends very little time at the academy learning how to control demons and magic. He’s there for a very short time before he’s out in battle trying to stay alive. Realistically, he should be terrible. He’s a novice. But somehow he seems really experienced? This is very unrealistic.

The ending of the novel is also unrealistic. It ends too abruptly. This prequel storyline is too complex to be captured in a four-hundred page novel. The pacing may be good, but Taran has squished too much information and history and plot into this novel.

“Arcturus fell to his knees, the pain of Sacharissa’s injury flaring like lightning across his brain. He could barely see through the agony, only feel the tremors of the Phantaur’s approaching steps.”

Younger children will love this, but adult readers aren’t the target audience. This is not a crossover fantasy series, so I’d recommend this to young eyes, and to parents/family looking to buy a gift for a younger reader. The Outcast is a prequel, so no prior knowledge of the series is required. I haven’t read any of this series and I followed along just fine.

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

The Outcast
Taran Matharu
May 2018
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers

Following his hugely celebrated debut novel, The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers returns to the battlefield and its aftermath, this time in his native Virginia, just before and during the Civil War and ninety years later.

The novel pinpoints with unerring emotional depth the nature of random violence, the necessity of love and compassion, and the fragility and preciousness of life. It will endure as a stunning novel about what we leave behind, what a life is worth, what is said and unsaid, and the fact that ultimately what will survive of us is love.

Set in Virginia during the Civil War and a century beyond, A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers is a novel about the brutal legacy of violence and exploitation in American society. At its core, the novel explores power and love.

There are two narrative threads in the novel. The first storyline is set in the 1860s before, during and after the American Civil War. It centres on the Beauvais Plantation and two slaves — Rawls and Nurse. They work for Lucy Reid and her husband Bob, and Rawls has already had his feet ‘docked’ by his previous owner. Rawls falls in love with Nurse, and when she is sold off to a cruel and volatile new owner, Rawls sets off to find her. This storyline then shifts and focuses on the marriage between Emily Reid and Antony Levallois. Their union is not passionate or filled with love. Instead, Emily is young and impressionable and Antony is cruel and unpredictable.

The second storyline is set one century later in 1956 and follows 90-year-old George Seldom — Nurse’s son — as he traces history in an effort to find out where he came from and what happened to his mother.

I don’t think the transition between the two storylines was seamless. At times, Kevin switches between each period so quickly that it jolts the reader and forces them to feel separated from the book.

“He did remember voices in the woods, a noise like rolls of thunder coming sharply and in quick succession. There were cries of pain, too, and a man who only called him ‘friend’ tucking him papooselike into a great gray overcoat against the cold.”

Kevin Power has real control of prose, writing poetic sentences and beautiful imagery and trapping the reader with his masterful use of words and dialogue. I fell in love with the way he weaved sentences together, overcome by how each paragraph flowed.

“He sat bolt upright, spat from the paralysed terror of the void back into a simple, remorseless summer night on earth. His breathing was out of control, shallow and quick. He tried to raise himself up out of the mud only to collapse back into it face-first.”

Unfortunately, I struggled to understand what the reader was supposed to take away from this novel. What are we supposed to feel? Understand? Know? Want to know? The writing was beautiful and the characters intriguing, but I couldn’t help but feel the overall message or purpose of the novel was lost to me.

“Of course Nurse knew. And she did not care what people said, except for the fact that new words being said can sometimes create a new record to measure deeds against.”

I recommend this to lovers of historical fiction — the kind of historical fiction that’s set in the deep south of America during periods of War, not the kind of historical fiction that’s about love or romance. Fans of Westerns will also love this style of storytelling, and the characters within the pages.

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

A Shout in the Ruins
Kevin Powers
May 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli is a young adult novel set in the United States. It acts as a sequel to the events in Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, but you can read this book on its own and you’ll still be able to follow the plot very easily. Leah on the Offbeat takes place one year after the events in Simon.

I’ve read every single novel written by Becky Albertalli, and I think she has a real talent for capturing the teenage voice. Leah on the Offbeat is very dialogue-heavy, and a lot of the scenes are written in text format. It captures the teenage slang and dialect perfectly. Every single character in Leah on the Offbeat — and all of her other books — felt real and relatable, and their dialogue was not at all forced upon the reader.

“I wish you’d give him a shot.”
“Who, Garret?” I ask, my voice jumping half an octave.
“Wells.”
My face burns. “Oh.”
I glance at Mom, who’s sitting rigidly straight, chewing on her lip. She looks vaguely distraught. I don’t entirely know what to make of it.
She sighs. “Okay, what if—”

“I’m not getting brunch with your boyfriend.”

Once I got to the end of the novel, I spent some time reflecting on the book and I noticed that there doesn’t really seem to be much plot to this. What actually happens? Sure, the characters mature and learn and relationships form and disintegrate, but what really happens? Not much.

And I don’t agree with how Leah treats some of the other students. I found it hard to connect with her, given how rude and negative she is for most of the novel. She criticises another student because she identifies as ‘low key bi’ and I don’t think that’s acceptable because it’s okay to not fully know who you are in high school. Leah is also really horrible to her mum and her new boyfriend, and although this may be relatable for some teenagers, Leah’s horrid attitude just seems over the top and I found myself deeply repulsed by some of her behaviour.

And in this moment, it’s easy to imagine this working. This friendship. Maybe we really could be roommates. We could hang around in pyjamas and Skype with Simon and eat cookies every night and make straight As all the time. She can have a boyfriend, I can hopelessly pine for a sophomore, and we’ll be legit best friends.

Ultimately, I felt fine about this book. I certainly didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t ecstatic upon finishing it. I simply enjoyed it. I do applaud that the book brings LGBTQ+ relationships to the forefront, because I think that’s really necessary in YA fiction.

Readers who aren’t as familiar with Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda will probably love this story anyway because they won’t be as familiar with the characters and they can go into this book with a fresh mindset.

Young readers who are looking for a story featuring LGBTQ+ characters will be pleased to discover Leah.

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

Leah on the Offbeat
Becky Albertalli
May 2018
Penguin Random House

The Juliet Code by Christine Wells

1947. The war is over, but Juliet Barnard is hiding a secret. While her family believed she was helping the war effort from the safety of England, in truth Juliet was a trained wireless operator, dropped behind enemy lines in Paris to spy on the Germans. But the mission went critically wrong when Juliet was caught and imprisoned in a mansion in Paris’s Avenue Foch. Now she can’t – or won’t – relive the horrors that occurred there, and the people she betrayed…

The last thing Juliet wants is to return to France, but when ex-SAS officer Mac begs Juliet to help him find his sister, another British agent who is still missing, she can’t refuse. And in retracing her past, Juliet begins to realise that in wartime, the greatest enemy isn’t always the one that you’re expecting to fight.

The Juliet Code is a historical fiction novel set in the 1940s in Europe. Protagonist Juliet spends months training with the Special Operations Executive and then in 1943 she parachutes into Paris to spy on the Germans.

When the mission goes horribly wrong, she realises immediately how dangerous the situation is. She is captured by the Germans and subjected to months of physical and psychological torture in an effort to extract information from her about coding that would prove vitally important for the Germans.

The premise of the novel is very engaging and unique, drawing me in with the blurb and keeping me intrigued as I read on.

“In spite of my resolution to defy him, the knowledge that he meant me no immediate harm was an enormous relief. After the harsh, bleak horror of Fresnes, it was disorientating to be met with protective kindness.”

Like most historical fiction novels, the plot switches between past and present. In the present, Juliet has survived her captivity and is now free. But ex-SAS officer Mac begs Juliet to help him find his sister, and Juliet is forced to confront the past that she’s been desperately trying to suppress.

“The Paris of 1947 was very different from the Paris of 1943. It seemed determinedly gay, almost in defiance of what the city went through during occupation.”

I respect the stereotypical role reversal in the book. British code-breaker Felix has to watch the woman he loves leave on a mission that she likely won’t survive, and then he is heartbroken when she is captured by the Germans. It’s very different from the usual male-female roles you hear about from World War II, and I found it to be a refreshing twist on the gender construct.

The Juliet Code is quite a long novel, and I think it could’ve been trimmed down. The plot – whilst interesting – is a little slow to start, and the pacing lulls in the middle.

Christine has captured Juliet’s emotions well — her fear and her pain, but also her determination and her resilience. I have to admit, Juliet isn’t an overly memorable character, and she doesn’t inspire confidence. I think in an effort to paint the character as a reluctant hero, the author has actually constructed a hero who falls a little flat. She’s a little bland, her internal thoughts just skimming the surface and doing little to reveal a strong, authentic voice.

“I said it over and over as he sat sipping wine, gently probing for information, apparently in no hurry to be served. Strasser was unperturbed by my refusal to converse.”

Setting is one of the strengths of this book — Christine captures the fear and tension of World War II set against the backdrop of Paris. These spies possess such strength and determination, despite the risks involved.

I recommend this to fans of historical fiction, particularly anyone with a strong interest in stories set during World War II.

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

The Juliet Code
Christine Wells
May 2018
Penguin Random House

Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce

London, 1940. Emmeline Lake and her best friend Bunty are trying to stay cheerful despite the Luftwaffe making life thoroughly annoying for everyone. Emmy dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent and when she spots a job advertisement in the newspaper she seizes her chance – but after a rather unfortunate misunderstanding, she finds herself typing letters for the formidable Henrietta Bird, the renowned agony aunt of Woman’s Friend magazine.

Mrs Bird is very clear: letters containing any form of Unpleasantness must go straight into the bin. Emmy finds herself dismissing problems from lovelorn, grief-stricken and morally conflicted readers in favour of those who fear their ankles are unsightly or have trouble untangling lengths of wool. But soon the thought of desperate women going unanswered becomes too much to bear and Emmy decides the only thing for it is to secretly write back . . .

Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce is a warm, moving, funny tale about female friendship, courage, heroism and life in in 1940s wartime.

Emmeline Lake is a plucky young girl who desperately wants a career as a Lady War Correspondent. She’s determined and she’s confident, and she’s hired by Woman’s Friend magazine to help Henrietta Bird type letters to her readers. It’s not her ideal job, but it’s a start. The problem is that Henrietta doesn’t like ‘unpleasantness’ and so Emmeline is forced to discard the majority of the letters that they receive.

“She won’t. Oh, Bunts, you should see some of them,” I said. I really wanted her to understand. “They’re so sad. People are ever so worried about things — you’ve just said yourself about the war. Everyone’s trying their best, but some of them are in a fix. And Mrs. Bird just throws their problems in the bin. It’s not fair.”

Dear Mrs. Bird puts women in the foreground — it sheds a refreshing light on the women of wartime.

Emmeline is moved by the stories she’s hearing, and the women who are reaching out for help. Emmeline has a kind heart and wants to help others, and I think a lot of readers will find her a thoroughly enjoyable protagonist.

Dear Mrs. Bird is a really touching tale. The friendship between Emmeline and Bunty is really beautiful, and its their chemistry that drives this novel. The war does not consume these ladies’ lives — they’re concerned, yes, and cautious, but they’re also career-driven and they’re seeking a fulfilled life.

This book was (surprisingly) a favourite of mine. I loved Emmeline’s voice and her determination, and I loved the wonderful cast of characters that AJ Pearce has created.

“On nights when there wasn’t a raid, we were allowed to sleep in the volunteer room so we’d sit on our bunk beds and drink cocoa and talk nonsense. And on the nights when the raids were bad, if we had any breaks we’d talk nonsense even more to take out minds off it. Finding me a husband was perfect on that front.”

Unfortunately, the pacing is rather inconsistent — the first half of the book is really slow-moving, with the reader unsure where the story is headed. The romances are drawn out. However, the final third of the book is where most of the action happens. There’s heartbreak and tragedy and Emmeline and Bunty’s lives are turned upside down.

And then everything is resolved in a short amount of time. I think the first half of the book could’ve been trimmed or quickened, and the climax of the novel could’ve been drawn out a little more so that the reader didn’t feel like everything was moving too fast.

“In the middle of Europe being battered by a derange madman and Britain doing its best to keep the hope of a free world alive, the three of us were playing like children in the snow. For these moments it was as if nothing had changed from a time when everything was simple and Mother and Father could make anything horrid just go away.”

I’d recommend this to those of you who love women’s fiction — romance, rural romance, historical fiction. Dear Mrs. Bird is moving and fun, but it’s also got a lot of heart and romance as well. This is a story you’ll devour.

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

Dear Mrs. Bird
AJ Pearce
April 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

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