JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz

This is not just another novel about a dead girl.

When she arrived in New York on her 18th birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city’s latest Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim.

Ruby Jones is also trying to start over; she travelled halfway around the world only to find herself lonelier than ever. Until she finds Alice’s body by the Hudson River.

From this first, devastating encounter, the two women form an unbreakable bond. Alice is sure that Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her life – and death. And Ruby – struggling to forget what she saw that morning – finds herself unable to let Alice go. Not until she is given the ending she deserves.

Before You Knew My Name doesn’t ask whodunnit. Instead, this powerful, hopeful novel asks: Who was she? And what did she leave behind? The answers might surprise you.

Jacqueline Bublitz’s debut novel Before You Knew My Name is compelling and powerful literary fiction about murder and grief, but also about what happens to those left behind after someone is killed.

Two woman arrive in New York City on the same day, and although they don’t know each other, their lives soon intersect under tragic circumstances. Thirty-six year old Ruby, running away from love, discovers the body of 18-year old Alice Lee. Raped and murdered in the early hours of the morning, Alice is about to be the latest statistic of women murdered in NYC.

The book switches focus between Alice and Ruby, as we work to find out what happened to Alice in her final days, and how Ruby will cope in the wake of the murder.

“In the beginning, I disappeared on purpose. Extricated myself from a life I didn’t want, just like Ruby did. But unlike Ruby, I didn’t tell anyone where I went. Not even my best friend. I let Tammy think I had stayed right where she left me; I wanted to skip out of my old life unseen. And if certain people stayed on my skin, if they came along in my suitcase uninvited, at least they wouldn’t be able to cause any fresh wounds.”

Whilst Before You Knew Me Name features elements of crime and thriller in the story — peppered but present — I wouldn’t describe this as crime fiction. It’s a character-driven story that dances around the murder, building tension with each passing chapter as we come closer to understanding Alice’s final hours, and how that will intersect with Ruby’s story.

Jacqueline’s writing is a key strength here. It’s reflective and observant — mature. Alice presents this all-knowing voice, which invites the reader in and expertly guides them until the final page. The novel explores so much more than just love and loss. It’s about connection and family, and about someone else choosing where your life is going in a split second. It’s about how to take stock of her life, even when you’re going through the worst time, and choose for yourself how you want to continue.

“I am tired of beautiful things making me sad. I should like to love something without turning it over and discovering exposed wires, cheap parts on the other side. For the first time, I wish he wasn’t so insistent on telling me the truth of things.”

Initially, it does take a couple of chapters to grow comfortable with the style of narration. The novel is written posthumously from Alice’s perspective, but in the midst of telling her own story, she does intermittently focus in on Ruby’s story. Switching between past and present, Alice seems to be all-knowing, offering reflections on Ruby’s life with an intimate perspective.

So whilst the writing is incredibly affecting and delicate, and the story is told in the best possible format, the stylistic elements of the writing — in particular the POV — do take a bit of time to get used to.

“Later, when I look back at all the beginnings that turned me, inch by inch, toward the river, I will see this was the gentlest of them. Shaking the soft, warm hand of an old man, and then a tour of his apartment, with a large, brown dog leading the way.”

Exceptional literary writing that will sit with you for days after completion, Before You Knew My Name is powerful and devastating. As hard as it is to ‘enjoy’ something of this subject matter, it is a phenomenal read. A comparison title would be Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones.

Readership skews female, all ages.

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

Before You Knew My Name
Jacqueline Bublitz
May 2021
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

Heartsick by Jessie Stephens

Claire has returned from London to the dust and familiarity of her childhood home, only to realise something is wrong with her partner Maggie.

Patrick is a lonely uni student, until he meets Caitlin – but does she feel as connected as he does?

Ana is happily married with three children. Then, one night, she falls in love with someone else.

Based on three true stories, Heartsick is a compelling narrative nonfiction account of the many lows and occasional surprising highs of heartbreak. Bruising, beautiful, achingly specific but wholeheartedly universal, it reminds us that emotional pain can make us as it breaks us, and that storytelling has the ultimate healing power.

Jessie Stephens’ Heartsick documents three lives affected by heartbreak. Whilst names have been changed and small details have been altered, Ana, Patrick and Claire resemble three very real individuals who have — at some point — felt truly alone in experiences with love. Readers will devour this.

Predominantly non-fiction with a slight amount of fictional embellishment cast through inner dialogue, Heartsick will appeal to all readers who’ve experienced romantic trauma — heartbreak, whether you caused it or were the recipient, isn’t a feeling we easily forget.

“I wrote the book for people who know that a self-help book won’t fix it. No book will. And for the people who know there’s no such thing as distraction because there’s someone living behind your eyes and they shape everything you see. I wrote this book because I know what it is to feel fundamentally unlovable. Like there’s something wrong with you. It is their story — Ana’s and Patrick’s and Claire’s. But it is also my story and our story.”

Written in third person and rotating between the three stories in linear fashion like a roll call, Heartsick reads like fiction and will completely absorb readers. The book captures that visceral experience of a relationship ending. Jessie offers great insight into how these three people felt at these pivotal moments in their relationship. The inner dialogue offers characterisation, as well as emotional observations that readers will be able to relate to. Each of the three main characters regularly reflect on their life, allowing for quiet moments in the book.

Despite being non-fiction, Jessie builds tension throughout each chapter. You experience love building between two people, and then you witness the ups and downs of their relationship, and then ultimately the final downfall. I felt great empathy for Patrick, whose love for his girlfriend is so strong, and it’s clear it may not be reciprocated. And Ana being married to the wrong man but being unable to follow what she truly wants is something I’ll be thinking about for days to come.

“We can’t understand how they tucked everything they once felt for us away into a back pocket and forgot about it. As though it never existed. We keep fantasising that they’ll find their old pair of jeans and pull them on, only to rediscover that feeling they’d misplaced.”

Jessie captures love at different ages. We meet Patrick at university and we stay with him until his early 20s. Claire is also in her twenties, but a little older. And Ana is in her 40s, with a husband and children, and a home she resents being inside. The end of the book offers great reflection from each of these characters, as their stories don’t just end with the relationships breaking down. We witness their turmoil afterwards, and them desperately trying to piece their life back together after it shattered.

Heartsick will either make you feel grateful for the love you have now, or will make you feel like you’re not alone as you currently go through love that’s been lost. Heartache and heartbreak is something all humans should be able to relate to, and understand.

“Heartbreak does not seem to be a brand of grief we respect. And so we are left in the middle of the ocean, floating in a dinghy with no anchor, while the world waits for us to be okay again.”

Raw, relatable and honest, and dripping with emotional insight, Heartsick is highly recommended reading. Anyone who has experienced a broken heart is about to remember it.

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

Heartsick
Jessie Stephens
April 2021
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Gaps by Leanne Hall

When sixteen-year-old Yin Mitchell is abducted, the news reverberates through the whole Year Ten class at Balmoral Ladies College. As the hours tick by, the girls know the chance of Yin being found alive is becoming smaller and smaller.

Everyone is affected by Yin’s disappearance—even scholarship student Chloe, who usually stays out of Balmoral dramas, is drawn into the maelstrom. And when she begins to form an uneasy alliance with Natalia, the queen of Year Ten, things get even more complicated.

Chilling and haunting, Leanne Hall’s latest YA novel The Gaps follows two high school students after one of their classmates is abducted. At first, the novel feels like a psychological thriller, like the crime is the central focus and we’ll find out what happened by the end of the novel. But, soon after 16-year-old Yin goes missing, the book unfolds into a nuanced tale about fear, vulnerability, and the frightening reality that Yin’s abduction could happen to any of the other girls in this book.

The novel feels very close to reality. Women being abducted, and often murdered, is a common occurrence in the news. Women don’t feel safe walking down the street, or even in their own homes, and Leanne takes that very real fear and embeds it into a really fantastic novel for teenagers. Young women reading The Gaps will relate to the sense of foreboding in the novel, the tension, and how scared the characters are.

“There had been a lot of gossip going around about various teachers, but the police profile seemed to have put an end to it. It said that the offender might travel with his job, and would definitely be away from home or work regularly. That couldn’t be any of our teachers.”

The Gaps navigates two different POVs. First, we meet scholarship student Chloe, who didn’t really know Yin but they shared classes together. Chloe is mature and compassionate, and possesses quite a calm yet fragile personality.

And then we meet fellow student Natalia, queen bee and resident popular girl in the school. She was best friends with Yin before high school, and holds great regret about the way their friendship fizzled. Natalia is traumatised by what’s happened; she’s snappy and spiky, with a short fuse. She’s angry, but she doesn’t quite know where to channel her energy.

Chloe and Natalia’s voices are unique and distinct, capturing very different teenagers. However, what they both have in common is a raw, emotional response to Yin’s disappearance. They can’t shake the feeling that they’ll never feel truly safe.

Leanne’s characters are expertly crafted and immensely relatable. Chloe and Natalia, among the secondary characters, are brave, bold and fierce.

“I want to ask her how that can be fair — what if there’s information that could keep more girls safe, if only they knew it? But I swallow the question, because the last thing I want to be, or look to be, is scared.”

Leanne’s writing is enchanting. She writes first person incredibly well, describing events around the characters with poise and visuality. Each chapter is a snapshot into Chloe and Natalia’s life, capturing moments of tension and wariness, but also great exhaustion. Women are sick of feeling so vulnerable, and scared of events that are outside of their control.

Chloe and Natalia are both insightful and observant, and incredibly likeable. Despite its harrowing subject matter, readers will love this book.

“I wonder if I can turn this burning feeling into anything good, anything meaningful. It seems impossible, I’m not even proper artist. Still, I open my sketchbook, find a blank page and start writing.”

The Gaps is a poignant, raw exploration of teenage friendship, grief, terror, and the fears that women develop from a young age. Highly recommended for readers of all ages.

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

The Gaps
Leanne Hall
March 2021
Text Publishing

A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion

Rage. That’s the feeling engulfing the car as Ellen’s mother swerves over to the hard-shoulder and orders her daughter out onto the roadside. Ignoring the protests of her other children, she accelerates away, leaving Ellen standing on the gravel verge in her school pinafore and knee socks as the light fades.

What would you do as you watch your little sister getting smaller in the rear view window? How far would you be willing to go to help her? The Gallagher children are going to find out. This moment is the beginning of a summer that will change everything.

Set in the early 1980s over one long hot summer in Pennsylvania, Una Mannion’s A Crooked Tree explores the unintended consequences of an ill-fated, split second decision.

With elements of coming-of-age bleeding throughout the story, but far from a typical YA novel, A Crooked Tree is told from the first-person perspective of Ellen’s fifteen-year-old sister Libby. She’s observant and mature — a little timid, introverted and withdrawn at times — and when Ellen’s sister returns home after being cast aside on the road, Libby helps pick up the pieces. What results is a sequence of events that change their lives forever. None of them will be the same again.

“Why hadn’t I told her? I put my hand on the door to open it and call her back, to say we needed help. But I hated asking people for things. Maybe she would pass Ellen on her way down the mountain. I began to think of all the people that might pass Ellen on their way home.”

A Crooked Tree is about how fast events can spiral out of control, and how powerless you can feel to stop them. After Ellen returns, she reveals she hitchhiked from the road and was molested by a creepy, blonde-haired man. She jumped out of his car and scrambled home before he could find her. When their sister Marie gets local boy Wilson McVay involved, things escalate.

Una balances dark scenes and themes with moments of humour and teenage angst. The secluded woods that surround their home give Libby and her siblings some comfort amidst a tumultuous summer. Their mother, Faye, is quite absent in the story, but we witness enough of her to understand she’s exhausted and stressed. Libby’s father died years earlier and the family were still struggling to comprehend the absence in their dysfunctional family unit.

“Everyone was running to the fence by the woods; some were already halfway up. I panicked, looking for the ladder, trying to orient myself. Then I realised that the surface of the pool was shimmering with red and blue light. The police had pulled the car up across the lawn to the gate. They had another amplified light angled at the pool.”

At times, the plot feels as if it’s on slow motion. Events slow, tension builds, and readers feel a sense of dread as each chapter passes. What did Wilson do to Ellen’s abuser? And what will this man do in retaliation? Una is an incredibly talented writer.

Exceptionally well-written and complex, I adored this book. It was just a nice surprise and an utter delight to experience. Una crafts vivid and three-dimensional characters, drawing us into their plight and ensnaring us in their journeys. A Crooked Tree captures the era of the 1980s incredibly well, and explores the complexities of youth within a compact package.

“The night we left Ellen on the road we were driving north up 252 near where it meets 202 and then crosses the Pennsylvania Turnpike. To the west were open fields, stretches of golden prairie grass and butterfly weed, the final line of sun splintering light through them.”

Tense, evocative and ominous, A Crooked Tree is recommended for readers of literary fiction. Mature young readers may also delight in this tale.

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

A Crooked Tree
Una Mannion
February 2021
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

Anorak Magazine: Vol 54 by Studio Anorak

Studio Anorak is an independent kids publishing house established in 2006. Studio Anorak publishes Anorak Magazine and DOT four times a year. Launched in 2006, it pioneered a new aesthetic and concept in children’s magazine publishing. 

Anorak Magazine, the ‘happy mag for kids’ is aimed at boys and girls aged between 6 and 12 years old. DOT is aimed at pre-schoolers.

Did you know that Oxter means armpit? Or that Troglodyte is a person who lives in caves?

Today I’m reviewing something a little different on the website — Anorak Magazine by Studio Anorak. This kids publishing house based in the United Kingdom produce colourful, entertaining and ethical magazines for children, all produced and printed on recycled paper with vegetable ink. Each issue of Anorak explores a different theme or topic.

The issue I received from Studio Anorak was volume 54 – The Imagination Issue.

Immediately striking, Anorak Magazine uses vibrant, bright colours to mesmerise your reading experience. Additionally, the book is filled with gorgeous illustrations to accompany each page spread. None of the content is dated, so it doesn’t matter what volume you order — children will love pouring over these pages.

“Do you know what we did this summer? We swam in a lake of ice cream…Don’t believe us? We did, we did! OK it was…in our heads. How did we do that? We used our IMAGINATION which is the most fun thing to do. In this issue, we take you on a journey around the weird and wonderful worlds that live within us. We explore why imagination is so brilliant, what we can do with it and what an imagined future might look like.”

Anorak appeals to self-sufficient, independent children who are looking for entertainment — perhaps a story, game, puzzle, quiz, interesting facts to discover, or just anything creative they can do to pass the time.

But Anorak is also ideal for a parent looking to keep their children occupied. Filled within this issue are a lengthy list of game and activity ideas, such as Catch & Read and Leaf Art and Home Olympics. There is even a recipe for Happy Patties, a tasty treat that parents can bake with their children — the recipe also includes vegetables as well, so it’s a healthy treat for those kids who avoid their greens.

Vocabulary in the magazine is encouraging and positive, motivating young minds to unleash their creativity and undergo a fun adventure within books.

“What is imagination? It is this unique gift we have to make things up, to create stories, characters, objects and adventures…it’s like having a screen in our heads playing tons of films all day (and night!) long.”

Recommended for young families, and perfect for the school holidays or that long Summer break when parents are looking for material to pique their child’s interest.

You can browse Studio Anorak’s collection here: https://anorakmagazine.com

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

Anorak Magazine Vol. 54: The Imagination Issue
Published 2020
Studio Anorak