JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel

One of Britain’s most accomplished, acclaimed, and garlanded writers, Hilary Mantel delivers a brilliant collection of contemporary short stories that demonstrate what modern England has become

In The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Mantel’s trademark gifts of penetrating characterization, unsparing eye, and rascally intelligence are once again fully on display.

Her classic wicked humor in each story—which range from a ghost story to a vampire story to near-memoir to mini-sagas of family and social fracture—brilliantly unsettles the reader in that unmistakably Mantel way.

Mantel brutally and acutely writes about gender, marriage, class, family, and sex, cutting to the core of human experience. Unpredictable, diverse, and even shockingly unexpected, each story grabs you by the throat within a couple of sentences. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher displays a magnificent writer at the peak of her powers.

I shouldn’t have read this so soon after reading Stone Mattress – you just can’t top Margaret Atwood’s short stories. Nevertheless, I’ve done my best to give it a non-biased review.

Hilary Mantel is a great literary writer, and most of these short stories have been written before and won various awards. Each protagonist has layer upon layer of diverse characterisation that reaches into the reader’s psychosis to draw them into the story. Most of these stories are directed in a way that is different to what I was expecting. The title story is particularly amazing in its ability to confuse you and satisfy you at the same time.

These stories are also a good length – they range between 20-40 pages, and you can get through one or two stories in one sitting, which is easy to do on a lunch break or on the commute to and from work. The Heart Fails Without Warning is my favourite story, and is about the continuous decline of a young anorexic from the point of view of her horrendously rude and unsympathetic sister.

Okay, so there were a couple of faults. Sometime there was too much characterisation. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but in a short story, you have fewer words to get the story told, and sometimes characterisation can bog it down. Sure, in a novel it’s wonderful, but in a short story, I felt myself skipping a couple of paragraphs because it wasn’t moving along quickly enough.

Also, some of the short stories were a little drab. They weren’t as engaging or interesting, and they didn’t capture human society quite like the other stories did. Also, I don’t think the stories particularly blended well together. They were written at different times, and Hilary Mantel never wrote them with the intent that they’d all be put together in a novel. Usually a collection of stories hold a similar theme or underlying exploration of character, but the stories in this novel seemed a little too diverse.

I would recommend this only to a reader who is familiar with literary works.

My Score: 6/10
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If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it’s the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.

This is another novel I picked up because I’d heard so much about it on social media. It’s a huge hit among the YA book bloggers, and I had high hopes. The writing is well done, and Gayle Forman weaves between present and past effectively. There are moments in the book where you really sympathise with Mia and want to find out what happens. However, there are a lot of flaws as well, and I really struggled to get into the story and the characters.

Some parts of the story are a little unrealistic. Like the part where Mia plays Adam’s ‘body like a cello’ (it sounds sexual, but it’s not supposed to be). Cello bow and all. It was cheesy. And cringey. Also, Mia’s parents aren’t like all parents, either. Not all parents are laidback and encouraging and cool. A lot of reviews I’ve read of this book are ‘OMG I cried so hard I couldn’t control myself’. I didn’t even come close to crying – when was I supposed to cry?

The novel is called If I Stay because it centres around the idea that Mia can choose if she wants to stay or not. But there doesn’t seem to be any dilemma in the novel at all. The whole time she is just telling the reader about her life and then explaining the events as they unfold in the hospital. There seems to be no moral decision plaguing Mia’s conscious about staying or going. Also, the ending is slightly predictable.

Mia and Adam’s relationship doesn’t seem three dimensional – at first, I thought there’d be a twist that he was cheating on her with Kim (re-read the scene where the two of them arrive at the hospital and you’ll agree with me). Adam doesn’t seem realistic; his actions in the hospital don’t really mirror his actions in Mia’s memories. It doesn’t seem like their relationship is going to last and yet Mia keeps telling the reader how much she cares for him. It seems a little forced.

I’d recommend this book only to regular YA readers who don’t care too much for realistic characterisation and plot development.

My Score: 6/10
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Portraits of Celina by Sue Whiting

Make him pay, Bayley. Make him pay.
It’s as if the wooden chest is luring me, urging me to open it – daring me almost. Open me up. Look inside. Come on, just for a second; it won’t hurt.
Celina O’Malley was sixteen years old when she disappeared. Now, almost forty years later, Bayley is sleeping in Celina’s room, wearing her clothes, hearing her voice. What does Celina want? And who will suffer because of it? A ghost story. A love story. A story of revenge.

I’m going to start with the positives, because there were very few (ouch!). The premise is interesting and very The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-esque. The mystery surrounding Celina is haunting and intriguing, and Amelia (Bayley’s sister) is quite well developed and believable. The title Portraits of Celina won’t make sense until you have finished reading the book, and this title is haunting and chilling and very goosebumpy. The setting of the novel seems very enclosed and secluded, which adds to the mystery in the story. And finally, I’m so glad that this novel took place over the holidays and school was never featured in the story – school always makes a story feel very YA and would’ve undone the secluded nature of the setting.

Okay, now to the negatives. Firstly, the story is a little farfetched and unbelievable. Bayley just happens to look exactly like Celina and is of the same age AND starts having visions from Celina? That got me like:

Also, the pace of the story is lacking. It takes about 250 pages before the story starts to pick up, and I only kept reading the novel because I have this compulsive need to finish every book I start reading. I think that Bayley is not characterised well – she comes across ditzy and immature at times, but other times she seems much older. Her dialogue is not realistic of teenagers and she does a lot of telling in the story.

The number one rule of writing is show don’t tell, and there’s A LOT of telling in this story. Bayley tells you that she’s developed an obsession with Celina, when it’s already obvious (and let’s not mention how unrealistic it is that Bayley immediately develops this obsession – this would’ve been more realistic if she developed it over time). She tells you that Bud is creepy and that Oliver is good-looking/dreamy, and she tells you that she kept the family together and that their mother is a little broken and that Amelia is a little off the tracks. These things should’ve been shown.

I was given an advanced copy of this title via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Score: 6/10

Made For You by Melissa Marr

When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

This book is good, but not amazing.

This story had an intriguing premise and plot, and the blurb on the back of the book drew me in (have you ever read a YA blurb that didn’t draw you in?). Melissa captures ‘high school’ very well – the dialogue parallels what teenagers actually say and even includes the correct emphasis on certain words. Also, Melissa presented a unique killer, one whose motivations are different to that of usual killers and has you turning the page to find out more.

However, I must now point out the flaws of the piece, and there are quite a few. Firstly, the point of view shifts between Eva and her best friend, Grace, and they sound exactly the same. Their voices don’t differ, and I don’t think Grace’s point of view adds anything to the story. In fact, I think Melissa could’ve left her as a third party character and only included Eva’s point of view and the killer’s point of view.

Secondly, the killer’s point of view doesn’t seem realistic. He tried to kill Eva because he’s in love with her (revealed in second chapter – not a spoiler), but when that doesn’t work, he tries to kill her friends in order to get to her? (in the blurb – not a spoiler) His reasoning and motivations seem a little forced and uncharacteristic. His point of view, at times, jolts the text, and sometimes I actually wished that his POV was also deleted from the book and we only knew what Eva knew.

Even though I thought the point of view in the novel could’ve been adjusted, I read this book in a few hours because I was eager to know who the killer/stalker was and what was going to happen. I’d recommend this for any YA reader.

One final note. The cover (image above) is amazing.

My Score: 6/10