JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Rip by Mark Brandi

A young woman living on the street has to keep her wits about her. Or her friends. But when the drugs kick in that can be hard.

Anton has been looking out for her. She was safe with him. But then Steve came along.
He had something over Anton. Must have. But he had a flat they could crash in. And gear in his pocket. And she can’t stop thinking about it. A good hit makes everything all right.
But the flat smells weird.

There’s a lock on Steve’s bedroom door. And the guy is intense. The problem is, sometimes you just don’t know you are in too deep, until you are drowning.

The Rip by Mark Brandi is an urban crime novel set in Melbourne.

The plot itself is not overly complex — two friends live homeless on the streets of Melbourne, with the young girl’s dog, Sunny. They’ve both come from troublesome childhoods and adolescent years, but they have learnt how to live as comfortably as they can. They feel safe where they are. Until they meet Steve.

“It’s funny how quick it happens and without you really noticing. Anton said once that it’s like walking out into the sea, and you think everything’s fine and the water’s warm, but when you turn back you’re suddenly miles from shore. I’ve never been much of a swimmer, but I get what he means. Like, being caught in a current or something. A rip.”

This book is raw and emotional, rich and powerful. These characters are troubled and flawed, but they draw the reader in. Mark Brandi is such a wonderful writer. He captures dialogue so well, and even with very little plot, he is able to engage an audience. The Rip is predominantly character-driven, and it’s fantastic.

Truthfully, this was going to be one of my favourite reads of the last 12 months. This was going to be a book that I would shove in people’s faces and demand that they read. This was, by far, one of the best examples of writing I’d come across.

…until I got to the end of the book.

The ending makes no sense to me. It’s almost like Mark wrote a few chapters and then cut them out of the manuscript. There’s a mystery in the book surrounding Steve and his bedroom, and the mysterious barrels. That mystery is never explained. All of a sudden, the plot jumps forward in time with no explanation of what happened in between. Sure, there’s a quick mention of a ‘court case’ but that’s it. What was in the barrels? We can guess, but what really happened?

The first thing I did was look at reviews online, and I found comfort in knowing many many other readers felt the same anger and frustration at the ending as I did. All the brilliant writing and masterful work Mark Brandi put into this book felt completely wasted at the end.

“I take Sunny by the rope and walk quickly up the street. He follows me for a bit, but gives up once I get round the corner. Look, I’m not ungrateful or anything — the food was nice, the apple pie especially — but it seems like everything comes with strings attached. With some people, anyway. Like, they can’t just do you a favour without expecting something in return, you know?”

The Rip is full of beautiful writing, with characters who are fragile, yet incredibly strong. The book is engrossing and riveting and I loved it all, until the end. Many readers will love this. But many readers will not love the ending.

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

The Rip
Mark Brandi
March 2019
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

A Review of Three Gorgeous Picture Books

The Fastest Tortoise on the Block
Michael Gray, illustrated by Naya & Kostya Lazarev
October 2017
Picture book for 5-8 year olds
Little Steps Publishing

And they’re off! A boy and a tortoise become fast friends as they prepare for the biggest event in town – the monthly tortoise race. It’s not winning that counts, but that won’t stop this tortoise from being the fastest tortoise on the block!

The Fastest Tortoise on the Block by Michael Gray is a sweet story about a determined tortoise and his caring owner. The text is written in first person from the tortoise’s point of view; the tortoise mentions that lizards have been making fun of him because he travels slowly.

This picture book is a cute story for little kids, showing them that practice pays off and also not to listen to what others say about you.

“Sleek lizards darting to and fro,
Made fun of me for going slow.
They shrieked and spat and laughed with glee,
They pointed sneering tails at me.”

The illustration style of the book is beautiful, with soft, light colours on the page to give the book a real warmth. I can see this being an instant classic in some families.

The rhyming of the text makes reading it really fun, and the words that are used are simple and would be easy for a young kid to understand. I do think that there are too many words on the page though. Picture books usually have 4 lines per page, and yet in this book, there are sometimes two stanzas on each spread and I think it would get a bit too much for some readers.

I recommend this to parents who are looking for a lovely animal-related story to read to their kids. The story teaches a lot about practice and determination, but also having fun and learning to forget your worries and live for the moment.

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Who’s Got A Normal Family?
Belinda Nowell, illustrated by Misa Alexander
May 2016
Picture book for 3-6 year olds
Little Steps Publishing

‘Are we normal?’ he asked. Mum gave Alex her brightest smile. ‘Absolutely NOT … but why don’t we find out who is?’   A celebration of unique, thriving and fun families.  

Who’s Got a Normal Family? by Belinda Nowell is a fantastic picture book about different types of families and learning to accept that ‘different’ isn’t a bad thing.

Alex is a foster child and after his parents bring home a new baby — also a foster child — there’s a kid in Alex’s class who makes fun of him. Alex starts to think his family isn’t normal, and so he gets very upset.

But, he and his mother sit down and look at all the families of the other kids in Alex’s class, and they realise that lots of people don’t have the traditional, ‘normal’ family. Sometimes kids only have one parent, or no parents but a grandparent, or perhaps their parents are both of the same gender.

Who’s Got a Normal Family? is great for parents who want to explain to kids that all families and all relationships are different. This is also a fantastic book that parents can use to teach their kids not to bully others or make fun of others. Alex gets really upset in the book after he is teased, and so this book shows us that harsh words can really affect someone and that you shouldn’t say something if it isn’t nice.

“Suddenly Alex wasn’t so excited anymore because, just like Baby Emma, Alex was a foster child too.
Alex was normally the sort of boy who laughed his way from breakfast to dinner, but that afternoon he did not laugh at all. He even cried behind his hands when he thought no one was watching.”

The illustrations are beautiful, with clear drawings and lots of vibrant colours used. The text is also really fantastic; it’s minimal but it’s impactful and I really enjoyed this book.

I recommend this book to parents who are looking for a way to teach their kids about bullying and perhaps if their kids have questions about the different types of families that exist in the world.

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The Tuggies
Jose Saracho
Picture book for 3-6 year olds
Little Steps Publishing

Lucy is not a morning person. Not only because she loves her bed, but because she always wakes up with hair full of knots and tangles. Have you ever wondered why your hair gets knotty while you sleep? Lucy is on a mission to find out why!

The Tuggies by Jose Saracho is the perfect book for readers with long hair that knots really easily (like me!).

Lucy wakes up every morning with knotted, unkempt hair and she hates it! So, she stays awake to discover who is making her hair so knotty. Lucy discovers that while she is sleeping, the Tuggies (beautiful, colourful little creatures) have been visiting her and playing around in her hair.

The illustration style of this book is the strongest part of the package. The colours are gorgeous and the layout of the pages is eye-catching and I imagine it’d be really engaging for a child.

The text is also short and fun, and the text is sometimes situated all around the spread, and sometimes it’s bunched up together in a paragraph. This makes each page feel really different for the reader.

“On the top of her headboard she noticed some curious tiny creatures.
At first they were a little shy…
…until one of them decided to dive into Lucy’s hair.”

This book has a really surprising and hilarious ending, that I’m sure kids will love. This is a large hardback book and a really fun read. I recommend this especially to parents who have daughters with long hair. They’ll find the book funny. The illustrations are so beautiful that I can imagine girls will love flicking through the pages,

Thank you to the publisher for sending me these review copies in exchange for honest reviews.

The Cull by Tony Park

One mission… countless enemies.

Former mercenary Sonja Kurtz is hired by business tycoon Julianne Clyde-Smith to head an elite squad. Their aim: to take down Africa’s top poaching kingpins and stop at nothing to save its endangered wildlife.

But as the body count rises, it becomes harder for Sonja to stay under the radar as she is targeted by an underworld syndicate known as The Scorpions.

When her love interest, safari guide and private investigator Hudson Brand, is employed to look into the death of an alleged poacher at the hands of Sonja’s team, she is forced to ask herself if Julianne’s crusade has gone too far.

From South Africa’s Kruger National Park to the Serengeti of Tanzania, Sonja realises she is fighting a war on numerous fronts, against enemies known and unknown.

So who can Sonja really trust?

The Cull is a heart-racing thriller from former army officer and bestselling author Tony Park — this is his 14th novel and once again he’s transported a real-life ‘wildlife war’ onto the pages of a novel.

This is the third novel with protagonist Sonja Kurtz, although I haven’t read the first two (The Delta and An Empty Coast) and I was able to read this book just fine, so The Cull definitely works as a standalone novel.

Sonja is resourceful, intelligent, observant and equipped to handle everything that she comes across in the African wilderness. She’s in Africa training women in an Anti-Poaching unit and they are ambushed by well-armed poachers. Two women in the team end up dead.

“Paterson watched the others. The TANAPA ranger, a young man, looked shaken. Ezekial, the preacher’s son, deliberately avoided eye contact with him and strode away. Tema walked with the fluid gait and cold stare of a leopard slinking through the long grass.”

Afterwards, wealthy businesswoman Julianne Clyde-Smith meets with Sonja and offers her a job — she wants to take down the poaching kingpins that are overtaking the African wildlife. She wants to find out who is at the top of these organisations and destroy them from the source. But once Sonja accepts the job and employs an exclusive team to help her, she realises that there’s a lot more to this job than Julianne let on. The team are suddenly entangled in a dangerous and deadly war between them and a poaching mob named The Scorpions.

“This wasn’t Sonja’s fight but her people were under fire. She could see Ezekiel lying on the ground, frantically pulling clubs from Julianne Clyde-Smith’s golf bag.”

Sonja is a fantastic protagonist. She’s really skilled and trustworthy, and she leads her team with strength and determination. At the same time, Sonja is a bit flawed. She can be a bit awkward, and she’s in a sort-of relationship with Hudson Brand and she really loves him but doesn’t act accordingly sometimes. She jumps to conclusions and makes assumptions and for a while it’s hard for the relationship to stay stable.

“Sonja sighed. She really had made a mess of this. She regretted bringing Mario onto the team, and what had gone on between them, but she was sure he would be enough of a gentleman not to put her on the spot. She had made this bed and would have to lie in it, with both of these handsome dark-haired men.”

There are plenty of sub plots throughout the novel to keep the reader engaged and entertained. The side characters are just an intriguing as Sonja, and I really enjoyed reading this book. It’d be a great Father’s Day gift, especially if your dad reads crime or thriller novels like James Patterson.

“Hudson left his camera and made for a stone pillar supporting the terrace roof and ducked behind it. Three men, each wearing a balaclava and armed with an AK-47, burst out into the restraint terrace. ‘Everybody down.’
People screamed.
The man who had given the order pointed his rifle at a family.”

Finally, Tony Park does a fantastic job of describing the African wildlife. His prose is rich with detailed description and imagery, and the reader can easily imagine everything that’s happening even if he/she has never been to Africa before.

I’d recommend The Cull to lovers of crime, thriller and adventure novels. It’s heavily embedded in African wildlife and the politics of poaching in the wilderness, so you’d have to be interested in reading about that or this may not be the book for you.

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

The Cull
Tony Park
October 2017
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Leaving Ocean Road by Esther Campion

Twenty years ago, Ellen left her beloved Ireland to make a new life in Australia. Now struggling to cope with the death of her much loved husband, Nick, Ellen finds her world turned upside down when an unexpected visitor lands on her doorstep.

The arrival of Gerry Clancy, her first love from Ireland, may just be the catalyst that pulls Ellen out of her pit of grief, but it will also trigger a whole new set of complications for her and those she holds dear.

Leaving Ocean Road is a warm, funny, delightful romance novel for fans of Maeve Binchy, Cathy Kelly and Monica Mcinnerney — the story takes us across Australia, Greece and Ireland and explores a long lost love and the chance of reconnection.

Ellen Constantinopolous has been living in South Australia for twenty years, and she’s happy. Her family — her Greek husband Nick and her daughter Louise — live on a farm in a rural town in South Australia. But then Nick dies suddenly when his car veers off the road and hits a tree, and Ellen is in mourning. Louise heads off to university but calls her mother every night to check up on her. Ellen is struggling to move on with her life after her husband has died. She is still weighed down with depression and grief — she struggles to pay bills or check the mail or even get up in the morning.

But when Ellen receives a letter from Gerry Clancy, her first love back in Ireland, she is able to pull herself out of her grief. He still lives in Ireland, but is now in Adelaide visiting his son. He wants to see her. The two reconnect and with Ellen’s best friend Tracey pushing her to try to make things work, Ellen starts to resume her life and she feels like she is able to move on.

“Once inside the house, Ellen went upstairs to make the bed she’d been in too much of a rush to make that morning. It was the little things that would keep her sane, she realised. The small routines she’d let go in the height of her grief. Only suddenly and in a fit of shame at the thought of Gerry Clancy seeing the state of the place had she been spurred into action. Maybe the timing of his visit hadn’t been so bad.”

There’s a hurdle in their love story when a deep and buried secret comes out, and Gerry and Ellen must face their relationship and their future. Tension builds between Ellen and Louise, because she is still grieving the death of her father and she doesn’t feel ready to forget him. The family is fragile, and Ellen must work to save it.

“Last night both she and Jennifer had been so shocked they’d hardly said a word on the drive to Felicity’s. The crew were there when they arrived and the punch was flowing. Louise didn’t care how bad it tasted as long as it helped her forget about what happened at the Popes’.”

Ellen is a wonderful protagonist. She’s strong and determined, and also incredibly relatable and likeable. She is an anchor for the book, the entire plot revolving around her. The relationships between Ellen and Gerry and Ellen and Louise are well-developed and plausibly placed. Additionally, Tracey is a hilarious side character and I loved any scene she was in. She provided comic relief and helped break up an otherwise sombre and melancholic scene.

Leaving Ocean Road is about learning to let go of the past and embrace the possibility of a new future. There are romantic plots for both Ellen and Louise, and together they find hope and purpose amidst their grief and mourning. Esther has done a great job of capturing this and illustrating it effectively and realistically.

This book may be a romance novel, but it’s also about family and friendships and the importance of letting go of the past and embracing the future. It’s sweet, but not over the top. I recommend this to fans of romance novels.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Leaving Ocean Road
Esther Campion
August 2017
Hachette Book Publishers

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