JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Somewhere Close to Happy by Lia Louis

Lizzie James is happy.

She has a steady office job (with a steady stream of snacks), has had the same best friend since school, and she sees her family every Thursday night for take-away and trashy TV. Lizzie likes her uncomplicated life.

Then a letter arrives one day from her first love, Roman. A letter dated the day he disappeared, 12 years before. As Lizzie uncovers the secrets of the letter, she discovers what really happened the year her life fell apart – and all avenues lead back to Roman.

Lizzie James thought she was happy, or somewhere close to happy, at least. Now she’s not so sure.

Somewhere Close to Happy by Lia Louis explores a past love, a childhood destroyed by mystery, and the lasting, crippling effects of mental health.

The story is mainly about Lizzie’s relationship with her childhood best friend Roman, who disappeared twelve years earlier. When Lizzie receives a letter dated shortly before he disappeared, she decides to start searching for Roman. Her close friend Priscilla is on hand to help her as well, and clue by clue, the two find out where Roman has been all these years.

“I hate the thought of that happening again. Seeing him like that, so pale, so cold, so vulnerable, but still showing up despite it all. If he’s here with us, he’s safe. He won’t freeze to death in the night or have to clean up his mum in the bath again. He won’t be pushed outside, to Ethan. To god knows what he does when he’s with him.”

We only ever see Roman through the eyes of others, and in particular, Lizzie. It’s interesting to read about her memories of Roman, about her time with him, and then as we start to track him down and find out where he went after he disappeared, we find out all these things about him that Lizzie either didn’t know or didn’t realise.

Roman’s mental health struggles and his addictions were two things that Lizzie didn’t understand the extend of until she started trying to find him again. The book shines a light on addiction and how crippling it can be, but also how well people can hide it from their close friends and family. Anyone who has a friend or family member who has gone through addiction, will be able to read this book and find comfort within its pages.

The book also tackles some other pretty heavy topics, such as abortion, anxiety, depression and death. Lia Louis touches on these issues very delicately and considerately — she’s a very talented writer.

“I can’t do it. I just can’t bring myself to speak. If I ask for him, and she says no, there’s nobody there called Roman, then what? Hopes dashed, another wild goose chase to another number, to another address where he won’t be; my elusive, disappearing, was-he-ever-real friend?”

I wouldn’t say I fell head over heels for this book. I enjoyed it, and it’s a layered story and it’s very well-written, but I didn’t experience much emotional attachment to the book. I suspect I’m not the target audience, despite being a similar age to the protagonist. The book does slow down after about three quarters and I felt like the pacing was dragging a bit, but there is ultimately a satisfying and enjoyable ending.

This book is probably best suited to readers of historical fiction, romance fiction, and fluffy, life-affirming novels about hope and family.

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

Somewhere Close to Happy
Lia Louis
June 2019
Hachette Publishers

The Paper Wasp by Lauren Acampora

Abby Graven is a dreamer. She dreams her way through her small, lonely life – hiding back at her parents, working at the grocery store. At night, she collects tabloid clippings that taunt her with Elise – her best friend, now Hollywood’s hot new starlet.

When a school reunion throws Elise in her path, Abby seizes her chance. With feverish certainty, she boards a one-way flight to LA to become Elise’s assistant and enters her gauzy realm of film sets and glamorous actors.

But behind Elise’s glossy magazine veneer, she is drowning in Hollywood’s vicious social cycle. Ever the devoted friend, Abby conceals her own burning desire for greatness.

For she is smarter than Elise. More talented. A true artist. And as she edges closer to her own ambitions, Abby can see only one way to make her dream come true.

The Paper Wasp by Lauren Acampora is an addictive, seductive psychological thriller about obsession, greed and betrayal. This novel will draw you in from the very first page, keep you hostage until the very end, and then leave you reeling for a long time afterwards.

This book is utterly bizarre, from the storyline to the setting to the characters. But it all works. It’s an addictive read, and one that I highly recommend to others.

Abby Graven was once valedictorian of her high school class and on a path to a successful adult life. But, now, she’s a 28-year-old college dropout who is living at her parents’ home in Michigan and is obsessed with the life that her high school best friend — Elise Van Dijk — now leads.

Elise is on the cusp of fame. She’s living in Hollywood, she’s featured in glossy fashion magazines, and she’s starring in upcoming lead movies. She appears to be leading a glamorous life, and Abby is enraptured by Elise’s ascent to stardom.

Abby and Elise briefly reconnect at their 10-year high school reunion. When Elise makes a throwaway comment that Abby should call her if she’s ever in LA, I’m sure that Elise didn’t actually expect Abby to do just that. But, a couple of months later, Abby buys a ticket to LA and calls her upon arrival at the airport. Elise, stumped, politely offers up her home for Abby while she’s in town.

Already, the reader is feeling the unease. We can see just how obsessive and dangerous Abby is, showing up to LA with no accommodation in mind, and with the singular hope that Elise will let her crash at her fancy mansion.

“A moment later, the cab was gone and I was alone outside the gate, shielding my eyes in the white light. Through the glare I saw there was a call box, a button I needed to push. I looked at it for a long moment and felt myself come slowly awake. My frenzy had been so absorbing, it was almost as if my body had been hijacked.”

Soon, Abby and Elise reconnect and Abby takes on the role of Elise’s personal assistant. But Abby is scheming, desperate to be as close to Elise as she possibly can. Abby is deluded enough to believe that her own fantasies could become real — that they are real. On the surface, she’s helping Elise, but really, she’s collating information in her mind to propel her own career in Hollywood.

There are so many logistical elements that make this novel work. The pacing is flawless — consistent, unwavering. The tension is heightened with each chapter we read, and the stakes are enormous for the main characters.

Elise and Abby are both fantastic characters. They’re intriguing and engaging, and you’re not sure who to root for. Abby, the unreliable narrator who you can’t help but sympathise with and love. Or Elise, the misunderstood, naive woman who has been caught up in the bright lights of Hollywood.

Acampora’s skill lies in her ability to capture the relationship between Elise and Abby in a way that doesn’t come across as just petty jealousy, but something far more extreme and inviting.

“How silly to have never come to California. Already Michigan was a figment, a prolonged, dank dream from which I’d finally woken. I’d left my winter coat behind, and I found myself thinking of it now, trying to recall the weight and feel of the boiled wool, the hide that I’d sloughed and abandoned.”

The Paper Wasp is about female friendship, ambition, and the consequences of obsession — the unwillingness to let go of your childhood, when everything seemed a lot easier and success seemed simpler to achieve.

I highly recommend this read. It’s fiction at its finest, and fans of crime, thrillers and psychological novels will tear through this book.

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

The Paper Wasp
Lauren Acampora
June 2019
Hachette Publishers

A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird

Meet Willa Waters, aged 8 . . . 33 . . . and 93.

On one impossible day in 1965, eight-year-old Willa receives a mysterious box containing a jar of water and the instruction: ‘One ocean: plant in the backyard.’ So she does – and somehow creates an extraordinary time slip that allows her to visit her future selves.

On one impossible day in 1990, Willa is 33 and a mother-of-two when her childhood self magically appears in her backyard. But she’s also a woman haunted by memories of her dark past – and is on the brink of a decision that will have tragic repercussions . . .

On one impossible day in 2050, Willa is a silver-haired, gumboot-loving 93-year-old whose memory is fading fast. Yet she knows there’s something she has to remember, a warning she must give her past selves about a terrible event in 1990. If only she could recall what it was.

Can the three Willas come together, to heal their past and save their future, before it’s too late?

A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird is a novel about family, loss, love and grief — it’s about the decisions we regret, and the ones we are yet to make. The book is an exploration of the human experience and how — no matter how hard it is — its important to face your fears and your regrets in order to overcome them, so that you can learn to forgive yourself.

The book is written in first person, but it moves between three different time periods — we meet the same woman, Willa, when she is 8, 33 and 93. At 8 years old, Willa is energetic and playful and kind. But her and her sister Lottie are subjected to abuse from their violent father. Their mother, who is desperate for guidance, is not able to leave her husband. And so Willa and Lottie live with a monster, with no foreseeable way out.

This particular storyline is really heartbreaking. Willa’s father brings so much tension to the story — he’s manipulative and cruel, and he causes such heartbreak in the family. Willa’s mother is trying hard just to survive, that she’s not in a position to be able to protect her children.

“With my eyes closed, I listen to the house. No sounds from Mummy and Daddy. After their fight last night, we won’t be going to school today. Mummy will stay in bed and when the school rings she’ll say we are sick.”
WILLA, 8

At 33 years old, Willa is feeling lost. She’s struggling mentally. She’s tried to help her sister so many times in the past, but Lottie has gone too far down a dangerous and self-destructive past, and Willa doesn’t think there’s anything she can do to help anymore.

Willa has two kids she’s looking after, and whilst her husband Sam is supportive and understanding and helpful, Willa feels like she’s drifting away. Over the course of the novel, we witness as this particular Willa struggles more and more and her mental health deteriorates as a result of her unacknowledged trauma.

“As I lie on the green tiles of my childhood bathroom, I am sore with the return of memories and thoughts of my sister. Lottie is a place men have visited, feasted on her starving need for them, and left. She is in my veins; we are one and the same place.”
WILLA, 33

At 93 years old, Willa’s memory is a little hazy. She requires a lot of help from others, and she’s estranged from her son. And she can’t remember why no one will talk about her other son. What happened to him? Is there some way she can fix this before it’s too late?

Willa’s childhood was a traumatic one, and her ability to time travel helped her cope with what had happened in her life, but only for a short time. Even at 93, Willa must learn to acknowledge her trauma and her grief and confront it. She may just be able to change the course of her life if she can connect with what happened to her as a child.

“Something has woken me. I don’t know if I nodded off for a little snooze, but Katie isn’t here and I’m guessing she has already left for the evening. Who can know if you drop off for a little nap when you are at that stage of life where you regurgitate events and everyone simply wants you to get to the point?”
WILLA, 93

The characterisation in the book is really strong — each Willa feels incredibly authentic. The voices are different, the actions and the motivations are different, and the dialogue accurately reflects the age of that particular Willa. I think Tabitha did a fantastic job of writing the same character at three different stages in her life.

A Lifetime of Impossible Days is best described as magical realism, because the three Willas have the ability to step into a different time in their lives. They can visit each other. Their backyard forms some sort of portal that allows them to escape their own timeline and enter either the past or the present.

At times the story felt a bit confusing because the nature of the time travel was a little convoluted, and there were definitely a few moments where I felt disorientated with where the story was going. I do also think the book lost a bit of momentum in the middle, but then it picked up again in the final third.

Despite the size of the book, I found myself heavily invested in the characters and the storyline. I felt compelled to finish the novel and I found the ending incredibly satisfying. Recommend for fans of literary fiction, and especially those that love a little bit of magic in their stories.

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

A Lifetime of Impossible Days
Tabitha Bird
June 2019
Penguin Random House Australia

Rogue (Vault #2) by A.J. Betts

There was no going back; there was no choice, anymore. I’d chosen out and this was it: hot-cold, dry-wet, bright-dark and lonely.

Hayley has gone rogue.

She’s left everything she’s ever known – her friends, her bees, her whole world – because her curiosity was too big to fit within the walls of her underwater home.

But what is this new world she’s come to? Has Hayley finally found somewhere she can belong? Or will she have to keep running?

Rogue is the second and final book in the Vault series by Australian author A.J. Betts. Vault is a dystopian YA series about a young girl — Hayley — who lives in an enclosed vault with a large community and her curiosity leads her to the discovery that they’re in fact living underwater.

Rogue picks up exactly where Hive left off — Hayley travels up in the pod and arrives on land. She has no idea where she is, or even what this place is. Over the course of the novel, you find out why Hayley’s community was living underwater and what happened to those people who were left on land and where they are now.

“Time behaved differently in this world. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it. There were no coloured grow lights to signal when to eat, work, rest or sleep. There were no morning meetings to allocate jobs. No bath-time rituals. No prayers, and though I still felt the impulse, I wasn’t sure what to pray for here.”

There were so many possibilities for where this book could go, but I just feel like nothing much happened. This is a really short book and I stand by my original thought that Hive and Rogue should just be one book, but with two parts.

Hayley travels a lot in the book, and it’s kind of boring. Sure, she meets people and they build a family together and there are hurdles she has to overcome and danger she must avoid, and information about the land and the people that she has to learn really quickly. But ultimately, I finished this book quite disappointed at the lack of plot. The final 50 pages has a lot going on but by then, it felt too late. I think this book is let down by its structure and its plot, which is a shame because A.J Betts is a really talented writer and I freaking loved Hive.

“I tried to recall what Will had said about the first generation, and why they went down. They had a problem, you understand? Was it a famine that had caused our ancestors to flee the terrestrial world?”

Rogue explores many themes, including climate change and asylum seeking. The book is mainly set in Tasmania, which is now called Terrafirma. Terrafirma is essentially a prison for drifters — this setting feels really relevant in 2019 and there is a terrifyingly strong connection between Terrafirma in Rogue, and Manus and Nauru in Australia.

Hayley’s characterisation is a strength in the book — she’s thrust into a new world that she has no knowledge of and she’s forced to adapt to her surroundings. She’s resilient and she trusts her instincts, and she is incredibly courageous.

“I’d once resented Will for his freedom. I’d envied his privilege, as the son, to wander unquestioned through the houses, and I often imagined the things I would do, if I were him. I would go to the kitchen for no reason but to smell the nutmeg and touch the polished copper pots.”

The Vault series is recommended for young adult readers, aged 12+

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

Rogue (Vault #2)
A.J. Betts
July 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Blood River by Tony Cavanaugh

Three women. A city in fear. And a killer who will alter them all.

Brisbane 1999. It’s hot. Stormy. Dangerous. The waters of the Brisbane River are rising. The rains won’t stop. People’s nerves are on edge. And then . . .
A body is found.
And then another.
And another.

A string of seemingly ritualised but gruesome murders. All the victims are men. Affluent. Guys with nice houses, wives and kids at private schools. All have had their throats cut. Tabloid headlines shout, THE VAMPIRE KILLER STRIKES AGAIN!

Detective Constable Lara Ocean knows the look. The ‘my-life-will-never-be-the-same-again look’. She’s seen it too many times on too many faces. Telling a wife her husband won’t be coming home. Ever again. Telling her the brutal way he was murdered. That’s a look you never get used to.

Telling a mother you need her daughter to come to the station for questioning. That’s another look she doesn’t want to see again.

And staring into the eyes of a murderer, yet doubting you’ve got it right. That’s the worst look of all – the one you see in the mirror. Get it right, you’re a hero and the city is a safer place. Get it wrong and you destroy a life. And a killer remains free. Twenty years down the track, Lara Ocean will know the truth.

Blood River by Tony Cavanaugh is a gripping and glorious crime novel set in Brisbane in 1999. This is one of the best crime reads I’ve come across in the last year, and I tore through those pages in one day. I was fascinated by the storyline, the characters, the murders, and the conclusion. What a compelling read.

Three men are gruesomely murdered near the Brisbane River in 1999, and the police suspect high school student Jen. But is she really capable of the heinous crimes they’re accusing her of?

“How could I forgot. Girl after girl after girl, all saying the same: she’s weird, she carries a flick-knife around school, and what’s with the Celtic thing? And Bettany knows she’s into Satan, like worships him and stuff, rituals and stuff, and Olivia saw her in the Queen Street Mall one Sunday and she was, like, so stoned and….and….and…”

The book shifts in timeline and POV a fair bit. It’s written in first person, but switches between a teenage Jen soon after being accused of murdering three men in Brisbane, to Lara Ocean the police officer working on the case, to the unidentified killer who is trying to hide their identity.

A good crime novel is when your guesses — your theories — are wild and unrealistic, and you have no idea if you’re going to pick the twist or not. Tony Cavanaugh manages to capture this incredibly well — he has nailed the balance between revealing enough information to entice readers, but not too much where the reader feels like they’ve ‘solved it’.

“It was the case. Three victims in less than a week. It was the rain, the grey sky, the hammering relentlessness of blood and water, a river rising. It was Damon, it was mum, it was Nils and my stupid decision-making teen years that were coming back to me after I thought I had buried them and started anew.”

Police officer Lara Ocean has a complex past and her teenager years seemed pretty rebellious and disturbing — there are some similarities between her childhood, and Jen’s childhood. As a result, she’s able to look at the case from an unbiased perspective.

She’s calm and more considering of the evidence and she’s more sympathetic towards Jen, but she’s also fairly new to the job and she’s easily influenced by others. Her police partner Billy is dodgy — he doesn’t always obey rules, and he thinks he knows how to get results in a case. Additionally, Lara’s ex-boyfriend resurfaces and he is terrifying. Soon, Lara is conflicted about how to move forward with the case.

“We found her wandering through Missing Persons — how on earth did she get there? Don’t ask; police headquarters is supposed to be secure — but here was our dilemma. Jen’s mother had clearly taken some medication and was on another planet, and while, yes, she could respond and speak to us and give her approval for a record of the interview with her daughter, we had to ask ourselves; would this come back to haunt us if, if, we ever took Jen to court?”

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and setting of the book — Tony has captured the flood and the anxieties of Brisbane residents incredibly well. I could really picture the locations that were mentioned in the book, and I found it comforting to read so many references to so many Brisbane places.

If you love crime fiction, please buy this. You won’t regret it. It’s mesmerising and memorable, taunting and terrific.

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

Blood River
Tony Cavanaugh
May 2019
Hachette Publishers

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