JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.”

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

Finally! A refreshingly unique dystopian novel! Just kidding. This book is like the amalgamation of The Hunger Games and Divergent, with, you know, a different plot and different characters and a completely different premise. But seriously, who cares that all these dystopian YA books are flooding bookstores at the moment – they’re fantastic! And this novel, which is the first in a trilogy, is so well-written and thrilling. I love it.

My favourite genre is dystopian, so if a novel is dystopian, it’s guaranteed to at least get a 5/10. But this book is so much better than the other YA dystopias that I’ve read lately. I actually liked it more than I liked Divergent, but not as much as I liked The Hunger Games (there is such a thing as a dystopian novel hierarchy).

Ruby’s characterisation is really well done – she’s a little too timid at times (to the point where the reader wants to roll their eyes at her) but she’s likeable. Also, the love story between her and Lee/Liam is subtle. Nobody wants to read a dystopian novel where the romance takes up more novel space than the world-building. Also, this trilogy has some amazing book covers. Let’s all stare in wonder at them:

I do think that Chubs is a stereotypical character – he’s like that boy in high school whose personality overcompensated for his lack of intelligence. He’s the fun one to have around. The one who can be serious at times, but is mostly cracking jokes and cheering you up. And Zu is a little confusing and mysterious, but intriguing enough that you want to know what happens to her in the next novel.

I also have to point out one more flaw: Ruby can be a little stupid sometimes. Let’s not mention that trap she fell into at the end of the novel (I’m not going to be any more specific because I don’t want to give it away. For all you know, it could be an actual trap. It’s not, but anyway). I’m hoping she smartens up in Never Fade.

I’d recommend this novel/series to anyone who is loving the dystopian YA novels being released at the moment. If you love The Hunger Games and Divergent, you’ll devour this series (I know I haven’t yet read the rest of the series, but I know I’ll love it, so yes, I’m recommending the whole thing).

My Score: 10/10
Buy HERE

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe that she would be abandoned as a young child, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.

Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest. The first is Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons—only to later doubt her gifts. The second is Virgil Stanhope, a jaded private detective who originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers.

Holy Jesus. I finished reading this book about ten minutes ago and am furiously writing this review in an attempt to come to terms with it. It’s amazing, evocative, emotional, and just pure genius.

I’ll be honest. Five years ago, I boycotted Jodi Picoult, because I’d read about ten of her books and to me, they all seemed the same. The same, overdramatic storylines with differing points of view and overly emotional, climactic endings. Plus, I’d started studying literature at university and my time was taken up reading Raymond Carver and Ernest Hemingway.

But, when everyone on Twitter can’t stop bragging about how amazing her latest book is, it’s time to renege on your boycott and pick up Leaving Time. And I’m so glad I did. The twist at the end of the book is so left field but amazing, and you feel so stupid that you didn’t see it. And the twist was so subtly revealed, I was like:

It puts the whole book into perspective, and it highlights that Jodi Picoult is such an amazingly talented writer.

Jodi Picoult, like all of her other works, has undergone a lengthy amount of research for this book. Elephants are a major metaphor in the piece, and the setting is an elephant sanctuary. Each tangent about an elephant is relevant to the story and to the character, and Jodi Picoult uses this to develop characterisation and societal relations in the piece.

I do think that Jenna’s ‘age’ is a little misguided. At the start of the novel, she seems a little immature (which makes sense, because she’s 13), but then later in the novel, she seemed to have matured too fast. She comes across as someone who is in their late teens, and although the events in the book would cause her to grow up and mature quite quickly, the change seems a little distracting.

I cannot recommend this book to you enough. It’s amazing, and prepare yourself for that twist at the end. I’m in a comatose state at the moment because I can’t deal with the ending.

My Score: 9/10
Buy HERE

Awful Auntie by David Walliams

A page-turning, rollicking romp of a read, sparkling with Walliams’ most eccentric characters yet and full of the humour and heart that all his readers love, Awful Auntie is simply unmissable!

From larger than life, tiddlywinks obsessed Awful Aunt Alberta to her pet owl, Wagner – this is an adventure with a difference. Aunt Alberta is on a mission to cheat the young Lady Stella Saxby out of her inheritance – Saxby Hall. But with mischievous and irrepressible Soot, the cockney ghost of a chimney sweep, alongside her Stella is determined to fight back… And sometimes a special friend, however different, is all you need to win through.

Sometimes it’s hard to read a novel that’s aimed at an audience much younger than you. I’m pretty much triple the age of someone who would read Awful Auntie (that math only really works if the reader is, like, 8). And although I read a lot of Roald Dahl growing up, it was a little hard to accept that storyline. For example, when the ghost appeared in the story, I was like:

And when the BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS appeared in every second line of the story, I was like:

But perhaps I’m too old to understand the appeal.

David Walliams does know how to enclose the setting so the characters are confined and secluded – and he manages to do it for 300 pages. And the Auntie is an interesting and unique character. There’s dark issues that are briefly explored in the text (death, murder, poison etc), which is more than I can say for most children’s novels.

Stella Saxby doesn’t seem to change at all in the story. And come to think of it, none of the characters do (except perhaps Wagner). In any novel, the characters have to evolve or adapt, even in children’s novels. It’s fine for Stella to stay the same, but someone else needs to change (excluding Wagner, because he’s an animal and he doesn’t count). I was half expecting the ‘Awful Auntie’ to momentarily change her ways, but David Walliams surprised me there (sorry for the spoiler).

My Score: 7/10
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Wild Things by Brigid Delaney

St Anton’s university college is a cradle for privileged young men and women. With its Elysian lush green lawns and buildings of golden sandstone, it seems like a place where nothing bad could ever happen. One weekend, members of the college cricket team go to the mountains for a wild weekend away. Things spiral rapidly out of control, and a young Malaysian student they dragged along with them as part of a cruel prank goes missing. When the boy is found by some bushwalkers on a rock ledge, barely clinging to life, most people think it’s because of a fall, but the St Anton’s men know better. The stress of keeping their collective secret however becomes harder and harder to bear, and even the heavy wrought-iron fences of the college can’t keep out reality… Dark, dangerous, bloody and visceral, this is a story of power, prestige and the pack mentality that forms the underbelly of campus life at a prestigious university. With overtones of The Secret History meets Brett Easton Ellis, this is the debut of a thrilling new Australian writer.

There’s something about a campus novel that just sucks me right in (I should note that I don’t actually know if ‘campus novel’ is the right name for a novel set within a university, but I’m just going to roll with it). I love that the setting of campus novels are reduced and confined. The students all live on university grounds and the story rarely strays from that. It makes the book seem intimate. If you, like me, have a slight obsession with campus novels, you should really pick up The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Actually, if you love campus novels, that should’ve been the first novel you picked up!

Wild Things builds suspense and tension really well. When the cricket team go to the mountains for a weekend away, it doesn’t go well, and the way that each of these characters try and deal with that really shows their character. One character turns to religion, and another turns to alcohol and girls. Brigid has done well to capture the personality of these boys and project them onto the page with authenticity and believability. This book is set in a university where problems are covered up and money can buy you out of those problems. Bullying occurs almost every second, and everyone turns a blind eye. Brigid’s writing is detailed and emotive, and allows the reader to really understand the characters – all of them.

Earlier in the year, I went to a public lecture where Brigid discussed her difficulties when writing this book, and it really helped me better understand the story. Originally, the young Malaysian student who goes missing was of a different nationality, but it didn’t come across as believable and Brigid had to change it. Brigid also talked about how she had to make all of the boys unique from each other because there were a lot of characters in all of the scenes and she needed them to stand out. And I think she did this really well.

Okay, so I must note a negative. Brigid keeps some things a secret for most of the novel. For the most part, we don’t know what happened to the missing student in the mountains. But throughout the novel, little details are revealed about what happened. I think Brigid revealed too much, because at the end of the novel, when it’s described what happened, it’s pretty much what we’ve already been told, so there’s nothing to shock the reader.

My Score: 8/10
Buy HERE

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter’s whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the “Great Perhaps” (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.

After. Nothing is ever the same.

 

This novel fits so perfectly into the YA genre and has enough teen angst to attract and engage its young audience. Although Pudge is a boring character (sorry John Green fans), Alaska Young is a fascinating character – and I’m so so glad that she wasn’t the protagonist. I read in a forum somewhere that Alaska is the book version of Cara Delevingne (see below), and that really helped me picture her when reading Looking for Alaska (the title doesn’t really become significant until about three quarters of the way through). She’s crazy, impulsive, fun, and completely sucks Pudge into her world.

The novel is set up into two parts: the Before, and the After. I can’t tell you what separates these two events, because it’s a twist that I’m glad I wasn’t aware of prior to reading the novel. And the novel isn’t at all cheerful and does not leave you feeling happy and positive. The characters have quite a few issues troubling them, and they fail to overcome them.

John Green has managed to weave the three characters (Pudge, Chip, and Alaska) together in a character-driven story that allows for personal growth and philosophical-motivation. Chip is an outspoken prankster who values loyalty and honesty, but is quick to come to the aid of his friends. He is the character mostly seen in YA, and Alaska is the character who is quite unique and refreshing in this story. The three characters complement each other well, and John Green has stylistically created three very different characters who all seem to work together so well (except for the fact that Pudge is really boring – have I mentioned that already?). This was me whenever Pudge spent too long talking about himself:

This novel didn’t really become popular until The Fault in Our Stars did. Actually, John Green didn’t really become popular until that movie was made. But I feel his novels open up a new avenue for YA – the not-so-happy stories of high school and university. They showcase the other (heartbreaking) side to growing up.

My Score: 7/10
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