JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Heaven Sent by S.J Morgan

At almost sixteen, Evie’s life isn’t all she’d hoped it would be. She lives in the dodgy end of town with her mum and her mum’s deadbeat boyfriend, Seb; and adolescent scoliosis means Evie’s forced to wear a back brace until she’s stopped growing.

Then one night, she meets Gabe. Breathtakingly handsome, he crashes, spectacularly, into Evie’s life. He says their meeting was no accident and convinces Evie he’s been sent to turn her fortunes around. Evie’s best friend, Paige, dismisses him as a pot-head, but Paige has issues of her own and has started spending all her time chasing older men instead of higher grades.

As the weeks go by, Evie’s luck seems to be on a constant upswing and she begins to wonder if she and Gabe really were ‘meant’ to meet; even if she’s noticed that so many aspects of Gabe’s story don’t add up…

But there’s someone else waiting in the wings and, for Evie as well as for Gabe, life is about to get a whole lot more complicated.

Heaven Sent is a YA novel by debut author S.J Morgan. The story follows teenage protagonist Evie, and the novel explores themes of friendship, family and relationship.

The premise of the novel is quite different — Gabe crashes his car into Evie’s bedroom one night, and then feels unexplainably drawn to her. It’s almost as if he’s a guardian angel for her, even though he’s noticeably absent for a lot of the novel and his disappearances are rarely explained.

“I was so busy thinking about his bizarre quotation and the overall odd reaction that it took me utterly by surprise when he leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. ‘You trusted me, Evie,’ he whispered. ‘Thank you.’ He then placed a hand where his lips had landed, as if he wanted to seal the kiss in place.”

Gabe is a really unlikable character. He’s mysterious but confusing, distant and withdrawn. He quotes scripture at her, and his dialogue often doesn’t make much sense. He’s cryptic in a creepy way, and I didn’t find myself sympathising for him in any way. At one point, he ‘gifts’ Evie some furniture and then you find out that the furniture was actually stolen!

I found it incredibly bizarre that Evie wanted to find out more about him, let alone actually spend any time with him.

I like the complex relationship between Evie and her father, and also Evie and her best friend. I think it’s important for YA novels to show fractured female friendships because that is very representative of high school and teenage life.

“There was nothing else for it. If Paige was going to cut off communication with me, then I’d just have to go ‘round there and demand she tell me why. It wasn’t as if we’d fallen out.”

There are noticeable flaws within the novel. The premise is unrealistic and the ending predictable. The dialogue is quite forced in some scenes and not at all how teenagers speak. Additionally, the relationship between Evie and Gabe is just strange, not enticing or exciting. And the conclusion of the novel is so fast-paced and Gabe’s behaviour doesn’t really make sense.

“I was just Evie. So, after the car crash, why hadn’t Gabe wished me well and moved on? What had kept him coming back? What kept him still coming back? What kept him still coming back? Did he feel sorry for me? Guilty? Was I the stone in his shoe, or did he think I was some sort of tortured soul who needed to be rescued?”

This may be a young adult novel but I’d actually recommend this for much younger readers, around 10-14 years of age.

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

Heaven Sent
S.J Morgan
October 2018
Midnight Sun Publishing

Man Out Of Time by Stephanie Bishop

When Stella’s father, Leon, disappears in September 2001, the police knock at her door. She baulks at their questions, not sure how to answer. ‘What if I just write it down for you.’

One summer, a long time ago, Stella sat watching her father cry while the sky clouded over. He had tried to make amends: for his failures, for forgetting to buy the doll she once hoped for, for the terrible things he had done.

The first time Stella sensed that something was wrong was on her ninth birthday. There was an accident, and when she opened her eyes there was the tang of blood in her mouth. Leon was beside her. But not quite there. In the winter, when her father finally came home from hospital, he looked different. Looked at her differently.

Now he was missing, and Stella held the key to his discovery. But did he want to be found? And after all that has passed, could Stella bring herself to help him?

Stella’s whole life has been stained by her father’s very struggle to exist. Would this be her inheritance too? Could she choose the steady minutes of an ordinary day? Or would she follow the path of a man out of time?

Man Out of Time is Stephanie Bishop’s third novel, a moving tale of inheritance and self-destruction.

The ‘man out of time’ is Stella’s father. He’s mentally unstable and his health deteriorates as Stella grows older. He is sectioned in a psychiatric hospital, and Stephanie uses flashbacks to show the reader how Leon’s battles with mental illness effect not only him but Stella and his wife Frances. In present-day, Frances and Stella work to locate Leon. He’s been missing for a fortnight.

This novel feels very literary — mature even. The themes of family, love, legacy and relationships are complex, and Stephanie tackles the story with a very topsy-turvy kind of storytelling structure. From reading the blurb, you think this will be a very linear type of book, but it’s rather scattered. And intentionally so.

“When Leon came home, Frances was waiting for him, the dress in a crumpled heap on the table. Where have you been? she asked. He tipped his hat in mockery of the question and replied: Why, I’ve been to London to visit the queen. Then he said, Busking. In the subway.”

Leon and Stella share a complex relationship — she loves him and he loves her, but his mental health threatens his ability to make wise choices and as Stella grows older, she witnesses Leon’s deteriorated mind and she grows very self-aware.

Stephanie Bishop has captured mental illness sympathetically and realistically. She illustrates all the complexities of mental illness, and the ripple effect it has on surrounding loved ones.

The strength of this novel lies within the writing — the poetic sentences and flowing prose and the brilliant use of vocabulary and subsequent sentence structure. Stephanie has a real way with words.

“Once there, she swung a leg over and spread out along the branch, her belly and face pressed to the smooth bark, her legs hanging down on either side, kicking the late summery air that smelled of decaying fruit — the dark and soggy worm-eaten plums lying on the grass below, a haze of fruit flies hovering over the rot.”

I wanted to like this novel more than I did. I wanted to read it and be inspired by Stephanie’s manipulation of time and story-telling, but more often than not, I was left confused and I felt like I’d missed something in the preceding pages. Whilst I admire the grand story within the pages, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed with its execution.

This is an emotional novel about the bond between a father and son, and the plot is in constant motion, flicking back and forth between different periods and time. This novel isn’t my favourite, but readers who love a complex family story will find comfort in Man Out Of Time.

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

Man Out of Time
Stephanie Bishop
September 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott

You told each other everything. Then she told you too much.

Kit has risen to the top of her profession and is on the brink of achieving everything she wanted. She hasn’t let anything stop her.

But now someone else is standing in her way – Diane. Best friends at seventeen, their shared ambition made them inseparable. Until the day Diane told Kit her secret – the worst thing she’d ever done, the worst thing Kit could imagine – and it blew their friendship apart.

Kit is still the only person who knows what Diane did. And now Diane knows something about Kit that could destroy everything she’s worked so hard for.

How far would Kit go, to make the hard work, the sacrifice, worth it in the end? What wouldn’t she give up? Diane thinks Kit is just like her. Maybe she’s right. Ambition: it’s in the blood…

Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott is a psychological thriller about two women and the power of a secret.

The novel explores female friendship and how two women can toe the line between friends and enemies. Diane Fleming and Kit Owens haven’t seen each other for over ten years, until Diane shows up at Kit’s work and the two women are forced to co-exist together. But no one can know the real reason why they stopped speaking after high school.

The two women were close friends once, but now seem to be professionals rivals. And since Kit knows Diane’s biggest secret, Kit is worried that Diane feels threatened by that. And if so, what she’ll do to silence Kit. Much more than just their careers are at stake.

“You always wonder, when someone is trying so hard, what it’s really about…Maybe, for Diane, working really hard was a way of crouching low in her grief, of staying under the radar. Of hiding. But in other ways she was impossible to miss.”

Megan Abbott has captured setting incredibly well. Most of this novel takes place within the walls of a science lab, so everything feels very claustrophobic and tense. It’s the perfect setting for Diane and Kit’s reunion.

Kit is a postdoc researcher for Dr. Lena Severin, a well-respected, inspiring mentor. She’s strong and determined and confident. She’s everything Kit wants to be.

There’s an exciting opportunity at the lab — Dr. Severin is spearheading a study of PMDD, which stands for premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Everyone wants a spot on that team, but there’s only room for two researchers and there are quite a few colleagues to choose from.

It’s a high-stakes environment and Diane wants this more than anything. But so do her colleagues. And as tensions rise and Diane and Kit’s working relationship starts to fracture, the people around them are starting to notice that something is amiss about the two of them.

“In the car, we don’t speak. She drives carefully. Stopping at all the yellow lights. Every time she turns a corner, her key chain smacks the ignition panel. One of those furry key chain kids used to have swinging from their backpacks.”

Something about this novel just doesn’t hit the mark. Not once did I feel like Diane was going to threaten everything Kit has accomplished. Diane is supposed to be seen as an unpredictable, unstable villain but really she seems like a complicated woman with a tragic secret and a dark mind. And Diane’s ‘secret’ — the author teases it for the first half of the book — is incredibly predictable.

If you’re a lover of crime, thriller or psychological fiction, then this story accomplishes enough to entertain you. You’ll be intrigued by Diane’s secret and the evolution of Kit and Diane’s friendship. Unfortunately, I felt like this novel fell short of what the blurb claimed, but others may enjoy it.

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

Give Me Your Hand
Megan Abbott
August 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father is not a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has left his family on the edge of poverty – until Miryem intercedes. Hardening her heart, she sets out to retrieve what is owed, and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.

But when an ill-advised boast brings her to the attention of the cold creatures who haunt the wood, nothing will be the same again. For words have power, and the fate of a kingdom will be forever altered by the challenge she is issued.

Channeling the heart of the original fairy tale, Naomi Novik deftly interweaves six distinct narrative voices – each learning valuable lessons about sacrifice, power and love – into a rich, multi-layered fantasy.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is an epic fantasy novel with a new take on the classic fairytale Rumpelstiltskin. At almost 500 pages, Spinning Silver follows over six different characters and their intertwined stories. It’s a grand story, slow-paced and meant to be savoured by the reader.

The world is enchanting and the setting so vivid. This may be loosely based on Rumpelstiltskin, but it reads more like an original fantasy story. With a girl who can turn silver into gold and a King who can stretch Winter for years, the premise is incredibly intriguing to any reader. There are also many underlying themes to the novel that readers will be able to recognise.

The first half of the novel is stronger than the second half, where the pacing slows dramatically and the events in the book seem a little absurd. However, Naomi’s writing is poetic and magical. The prose flows, and the description is detailed and really evokes a strong image for the reader. I could feel the cold and the Winter, and my stomach ached just reading about how impoverished, poor and hungry these characters were.

“I didn’t try to sew. I had a book from off my father’s shelf in my lap, a rare pleasure I couldn’t enjoy. I stared down at the painting of the storyteller and the sultan, a thready shadow-creature taking shape out of the smoke of the brazier between her weaving hands, and I couldn’t even reach the end of a sentence.”

I have mixed feelings about this title. On the one hand, I love retellings. And I adore the story of Rumpelstitzkin and how creative Naomi was in her retelling. However, the pacing is slow and there are too many characters to try and keep track of, and I actually felt really exhausted by the end of the book.

I read an ARC of the book, so perhaps this is different in the final edition, but each section of the book doesn’t say whose POV it is. There are little illustrations used for each character POV, but with so many characters, I couldn’t remember which image belonged to whom, and so whenever the POV shifted it took me a good couple of paragraphs before I knew for sure which character we were now following along with.

It really confused me, and I hope the final edition at least has headings with the character’s name so the reader can follow along easily.

Additionally, I still don’t think I fully understand how the world works? I understand the prolonged Winter and the relationship between all of the characters, and the plot is easy to follow. But I felt like some events in the story weren’t realistic, but were in fact there because Naomi was trying to keep remnants of the original Rumpelstiltskin story in place.

“There was a lot of snow in the yard. I shovelled some of it into big heaps so the goats and chickens could get to the grass. The ground was frozen, but I took out the nut from the white tree and looked at it and wondered if maybe I should plant it here.”

This story is for fans of epic fantasy tales — for readers who will stick with a long story, even if the pacing is quite slow and the world-building a little hard to grasp. It’s not my favourite retelling, but I did keep reading because I was invested in the characters and their individual stories.

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

Spinning Silver
Naomi Novik
July 2018
Pan Macmillan Australia

The Outcast by Taran Matharu

Enter an immersive world where the chosen few have the ability to summon demons …

Arcturus is just an orphaned stable boy when he discovers he has the ability to summon demons from another world. He is sent to Vocans Academy where the lost arts of summoning, spell craft and demonology are taught to the noble children of the Empire.

As the first commoner gifted with this ability, his discovery challenges the nobility and the powers that be and Arcturus soon makes enemies. With no one but his demon Sacharissa by his side, Arcturus must prove himself as a worthy Summoner …

The Outcast by Taran Matharu is the prequel novel to the bestselling children’s fantasy series, Summoner. It’s about young kids who have the rare gift of being able to summon demons from another world.

This novel is most enjoyable, taking the reader on a fun, adventurous journey full of orcs, dwarves, demons and magic. Whilst the characterisation is pretty weak — the characters are not really relatable and their motivations seem very stereotypical — the pacing is great. Each chapter ends on a note that wants you to keep reading, and the book definitely drew comparisons to the Harry Potter series.

‘Prince Harold, why do you think your father has sent me away?’
‘Lord Forsyth, the reasons are threefold. The first is that in the last dwarven rebellion, the noble families suffered several deaths, and this could happen again if the ongoing altercations with the orcs become any worse. With commoners to swell our ranks, we will be able to take fewer risks, giving the more dangerous missions to them.”

At its core, the novel explores racism and prejudice. Everyone is so surprised that a commoner has the ability to summon a demon, but they treat Arcturus terribly and two students even try to kill him. However, over the course of the novel, Arcturus learns to trust other students and he forms strong friendships with a few other kids in the academy.

The novel is subject to quite a few significant flaws. It’s unrealistic how Arcturus is privy to so much sensitive information, even from the the beginning of the book. This is noticeable in most scenes where Obadiah is present — a powerful man like that wouldn’t tell him as much as he does, and he wouldn’t have his students discussing and understanding all of the political knowledge of the land and school. It feels a lot like an info dump to the reader.

“Now he could see the animals, like the deer of the north but with twisting horns and a ribbon of black separating their white-furred bellies and the sandy coat above. They were strange creatures to be sure, and he had no idea what they were.”

Arcturus actually spends very little time at the academy learning how to control demons and magic. He’s there for a very short time before he’s out in battle trying to stay alive. Realistically, he should be terrible. He’s a novice. But somehow he seems really experienced? This is very unrealistic.

The ending of the novel is also unrealistic. It ends too abruptly. This prequel storyline is too complex to be captured in a four-hundred page novel. The pacing may be good, but Taran has squished too much information and history and plot into this novel.

“Arcturus fell to his knees, the pain of Sacharissa’s injury flaring like lightning across his brain. He could barely see through the agony, only feel the tremors of the Phantaur’s approaching steps.”

Younger children will love this, but adult readers aren’t the target audience. This is not a crossover fantasy series, so I’d recommend this to young eyes, and to parents/family looking to buy a gift for a younger reader. The Outcast is a prequel, so no prior knowledge of the series is required. I haven’t read any of this series and I followed along just fine.

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

The Outcast
Taran Matharu
May 2018
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

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