JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

Daisy Darker’s family were as dark as dark can be, when one of them died all of them lied and pretended not to see . . .

Daisy Darker is arriving at her grandmother’s house for her eightieth birthday. It is Halloween, and Seaglass – the crumbling Cornish house perched upon its own tiny private island – is at one with the granite rocks it sits on.

The Darker family haven’t all been in the same place for over a decade, and when the tide comes in they’ll be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. When the tide goes back out, nothing will ever be the same again, because one of them is a killer . . .

In Alice Feeney’s psychological thriller Daisy Darker, a fractured family congregate on a secluded and isolated island to celebrate their grandmother’s 80th birthday. But with no way to escape the island and no way to communicate with the outside world, it’s the perfect conditions for a killer to strike.

One by one, members of the Darker family are murdered in incredibly personal and specific ways. With nine hours to go until low tide and the possibility of escape, who will still be alive come morning?

“She looks over her shoulder, then creeps nearer to the crib. We all seem to lean closer to the TV, as little Rose leans down over the baby, before checking over her shoulder one last time. We hang off her every word as she sings a sweet-sounding lullaby.”

Alice has set up the classic elements of an engaging psychological thriller – a secluded setting with no way to communicate with external parties, a series of murders, and a group of characters known to each other and all harbouring horrific secrets. It’s the perfect concoction for a page-turning mystery.

Whilst at times I found the dialogue to be unrealistic and over-the-top, and pretty much all of the characters to be wildly unlikeable, the strengths of the story lie in its twists and mysteries. There seems to be very little emotions in how Daisy Darker reacts to her family members’ murders, but she functions more as a narrator from afar, allowing us the chance to understand all members of the party so we can make our own opinions on who might be the killer.

Admittedly, I wish the characters possessed more agency to uncover the killer. They seem a bit slow to catch on in the beginning, happy to watch videos and wait for things to happen rather than harnessing some agency and driving the story forward themselves.

“He leaves the lounge and none of us know what to say. My father has always held his feelings hostage. His inability – or unwillingness – to express himself seemed to make my mother voice her own feelings on any subject twice as loud and twice as often.”

The ending makes up for any flaws the precede it. Because truthfully, the suspense and tension in the lead-up to the twist were starting to wane. Flashbacks break the pacing and lull the flow of the book. For a long time, I couldn’t make sense of the wacky storyline, odd murders and the seemingly non-existent motive. I was struggling to tell some of the characters apart, found the flashback videos to be a bit redundant and the poetry a little pointless.

But that twist is a redeeming element to the story and was an actual gasp-aloud moment for me as the reader. Suddenly, a motive is clear and so are Alice’s stylistic devices and plotting choices.

“My father is the first to arrive. Being punctual is his only way of saying I love you. For as long as I can remember he has expressed emotions through timekeeping, unable to demonstrate affection in the ways most other fathers do.”

Utterly compelling with a cracker of an ending, Daisy Darker is recommended for fans of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries. Readership skews 20+

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

Daisy Darker
Alice Feeney
September 2022
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Electric and Mad and Brave by Tom Pitts

Matt Lacey is in a mental health facility recovering from a breakdown.

In an attempt to work through a mess of conflicting thoughts and feelings, he writes, unwinding the story of his adolescence with the beautiful, impassive, fierce Christina.

As Matt delves into the more agonising moments of his past, he has to learn to look directly at the pain and love that have made him who he is now.

Brazenly wearing its heart on its sleeve, Electric and Mad and Brave is a heightened and technicolour story about the soaring joy and numbing nightmare of being young and hopelessly in love.

Tom Pitt’s literary debut Electric and Mad and Brave centres around twenty-eight-year-old Matt Lacey, living in a mental health facility in Melbourne and struggling to confront and reconcile with events from his past. When Matt’s therapist suggest he keep a journal to reflect on his childhood and the events that led to his admission into the facility, we are immersed in a compelling and tender history.

Narrated in first person, the book’s stylistic devices allow for an immediate sense of Matt’s mind frame and his willingness (or rather, unwillingness) to confront the truth about his past. We come to realise early on that Matt is an incredibly unreliable narrator – at first, his journal entries are clear and concise. Over time, they become chaotic, they double-back, they re-write events we thought we’d already learned. Matt is being untruthful with the reader and it isn’t until the final chapters that we find out how certain events actually unfolded in Matt’s childhood.

“No – that can’t have been what she’d meant to say. There’d been something else on her lips. Hadn’t there? Yes. In that pause, she’d almost said it: something mad and terrifying. Although maybe she couldn’t say. Maybe to say meant stepping off a ledge into…”

Moving between past and present quite frequently, Matt meets Christina when he is 11 and she is 12. We follow them over the course of their adolescence as their connection grows and attraction develops. Both Matt and Christina’s families are unhealthy and dysfunctional, but in rather different ways. These two kids coming together forces these two families to intersect which sets into motion a string of avoidable events leading to Matt’s breakdown and admission into the mental health facility.

Tom Pitts builds tension and pacing throughout the book, but it’s most notable in the final chapters as the truth about Christina and Matt’s relationship is revealed. Their love is a destructive one, and so we can feel the tension build between them as we move closer and closer to the reveal. Stylistically, there’s a quicker nature to the writing. Shorter chapters, more abrupt observations and descriptions. We’re suddenly moving through at a much faster pace to build and maintain momentum.

“In the days after, I began to view things differently, my memories becoming distorted. I would think of Alek at the dining table with his shiny head, only to suddenly recall that his eyebrows had been skin too – that he’d sat upright in hospital only because he was too weak to stand…”

Electric and Mad and Brave sensitively portrays mental health and trauma, and the process of confronting traumatic events from one’s past.

The book moves between past and present so frequently, sometimes in the middle of a chapter, and I’ll admit I sometimes struggled to follow the flow of events. It was often hard to immediately determine what was past vs. present, what was a memory and what wasn’t. I often found myself having to flick back and re-read certain sections.

“Now I was in the back seat, having still not replied, and my hands were sweating. I looked outside and the landscape was enchanting and warped. Somehow this morning dusk was causing the landmarks to become strange imitations of themselves.”

Poignant, moving and observant, Tom Pitts’ Electric and Mad and Brave is recommended for literary readers. Readership skews 30+

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

Electric and Mad and Brave
Tom Pitts
August 2022
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Cobalt Blue by Matthew Reilly

For 35 years, the United States and Russia each had their own superhero.

Three days ago, America’s hero died.

Today will be bad.

In the face of an overwhelming attack, one young woman – unassuming and anonymous – might be America’s only hope.

Her codename … COBALT BLUE

Matthew Reilly returns with another action-packed thriller in his latest novella, Cobalt Blue. Filled with trademark Matthew Reilly action and conflict, Cobalt Blue is another ‘save the world’ story after America comes under attack following the death of their key superhero.

Rather quickly, we see America and Russia at war with each other. Each of them had their own superhero to defend the country, but when America’s superhero passes way, suddenly there’s nothing stopping Russia from taking advantage of an undefended America.

“Cobalt couldn’t have been more different. For one thing, Dr Chris Cobalt had been 44 at the time of their infection, twenty years older than Furin, and a highly respected astrophysicist. Where the Fury was all strength and rage, Cobalt was thoughtful and reserved.”

Matthew Reilly certainly seems to have a formula he follows, and he brings quite an interesting premise to this new release and positions it firmly within the superhero genre. There are some flashbacks in the story to add depth to some of the characters and provide context to the present-day storyline.

Fast-paced and a compact, easy read at 200 pages, Cobalt Blue will find its audience in Matthew Reilly fans and young, male readers. It’s an accessible read for reluctant readers as well – short chapters and paragraph, with brief, stripped back prose. The pacing accelerates at a quick rate, engaging readers with each passing chapter.

“When he arrived there, he decapitated the Statue of Liberty – flew right through her neck – and impaled her head on top of the One World Trade Center. New Yorkers screamed in terror and fled the streets.”

There is quite a high production value to this one – hardback, jacketed, coloured font. It certainly stands out on a bookshelf, and I like the clean, suave cover.

Admittedly, if you’ve read quite a few Matthew Reilly books in the past, then you’ll find this latest one a bit predictable. He does follow a similar kind of structure with his books, so you’ll know what to expect as you progress through the story. At times a little silly and over-the-top, readers will need to lean into the fun of the story and cast any doubts aside.

“As the superfast rolling fight moved along the length of Fifth Avenue to the airspace in front of the New York Public Library, White even managed to dent the Fury’s facemask and he sprang back in surprise.”

Punchy and pacey, Matthew Reilly’s Cobalt Blue is recommended for thriller and action readers, and fans of Reilly’s previous works. Readership skews male, 15+

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

Cobalt Blue
Matthew Reilly
August 2022
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Reward System by Jem Calder

Julia has landed a fresh start – at a ‘pan-European’ restaurant.
‘Imagine that,’ says her mother.
‘I’m imagining.’

Nick is flirting with sobriety and nobody else. Did you know: adults his age are now more likely to live with their parents than a romantic partner?

Life should have started to take shape by now – but instead we’re trying on new versions of ourselves, swiping left and right, and searching for a convincing answer to that question: ‘What do you do?’

A compact set of contemporary short fiction, Jem Calder’s Reward System explores the millennial experience, modern life, getting older, and trying to solidify what it is we want from our jobs.

Reward System is six short stories, each varied in length and containing an assortment of characters who make an appearance across different stories – characters move in and out of stories almost like adult friends do. Jem has a rather skilled ability to capture the micro, minute details of everyday interactions – implied meaning, concealed desire, for example. Dialogue is quite bare but conveys all that it needs to.

“Because she knew her mother didn’t have many people to talk to her in life and that Wednesdays marked the remotest point of interspace between her Sunday fellowships at St Mike’s, Julia made it a midweek habit to FaceTime with her during the breaks that divided her split shifts at the kitchen.”

Each short story is broken up further into scenes and shorter snippets, allowing for somewhat of a staccato reading experience. It feels like what we’re experiencing of these characters is just a very tiny glimpse into a much wider story, and so it leaves you wanting more.

My favourite story is the first one – A Restaurant Somewhere Else – which also happens to be the longest one (107 pages). It certainly feels like the most fully-developed story, with a slower build and comprehensive character reactions. It is also a rather quirky and enticing setting, Julia being a sous chef at a rather up-market restaurant, surrounded by quite a large suite of eccentric characters to keep the story anchored and to maintain momentum.

“Pretty celibate this whole past year, actually. With only a wall separating her from Margot and only a global cellular-network connection separating Margot from her older sister…Julia had been too sound-and-space-conscious to bring any boys back to the apartment since moving in.”

Whilst I did find a couple of the stories a little dry and slow, and I did skim read over some paragraphs that I found a little monotonous, Jem will find loyal readers in those who appreciate short story collections. The package itself is gorgeous – hardback, smaller in size, with bold colours of orange, green and blue.

“Walking home, he said he was still hungry, and when they got back to his apartment, she baked two peaches and watched as he ate them both with ice cream. He was maybe the most unselfconscious eater she had ever seen, perhaps also the greediest.”

Observant and insightful, Jem Calder’s Reward System is recommended for readers of short fiction, novellas, and literary fiction. Readership skews 30+

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

Reward System
Jem Calder
July 2022
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton

Amsterdam in the year 1705. Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms. At the theatre, Walter, the love of her life, awaits her, but at home in the house on the Herengracht, winter has set in – her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and the Brandt family are selling their furniture in order to eat. On Thea’s birthday, also the day that her mother Marin died, the secrets from the past begin to overwhelm the present.

Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam’s most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed – perhaps this will set their fortunes straight. And indeed, the ball does set things spinning: new figures enter their life, promising new futures. But their fates are still unclear, and when Nella feels a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck, she wonders if the miniaturist has returned for her . . .

Set in 18th century Amsterdam, Jessie Burton’s The House of Fortune is the companion novel to her internationally best-selling novel ‘The Miniaturist’. Taking place 18 years after the end of The Miniaturist, Nella has helped raise Otto and Marin’s daughter Thea without any reappearances of the miniaturist. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t far away.

Nella’s family are struggling financially — Otto has lost his job and Nella and Thea are keeping up appearances despite their savings drying up. Thea, unbeknownst to anyone else, is conducting an affair with a local painter who she hopes to marry — she rejects Nella’s suggestion of marrying into wealth to save the family from financial distress.

“Thea closes the front door and leans against it in the cold air, placing the golden dress on the step in order to rip apart the paper. When she sees what is lying inside, she lets out a gasp of delight. It seems impossible, but it’s true. Here is Walter, miniaturised to absolute perfection.”

Written in third person and moving between Nella and Thea’s perspectives, we once again experience that reserved, distant voice that Jessie Burton is known for. Despite being set one generation later, the events from the first book still loiter in this tale — the circumstances surrounding Thea’s birth, the identity of her mother and what she was like as a person, the death of Nella’s first husband, and of course, the miniaturist who plagued her marriage. When Thea begins receiving small miniatures delivered to the house, it propels her in a direction no one could foresee, quickening the pacing towards a tense finale.

Whilst I didn’t love this as much as the first book (I don’t feel that the magic and intrigue is as prevalent as this one),Thea takes the reins throughout the story and is quite the fascinating protagonist. The period setting of the book is, as always, elegant and enticing to read, and it is enjoyable to step back into these lives eight years later.

“There is a long silence. The four of them contemplate a future that has suddenly become yet more uncertain. It’s as if the ropes that were tethering the have been severed, and are snaking away, and Thea and her family are drifting into unknown waters with no sense of where they might go.”

Through Thea’s role and presence in society, we come to understand the inherent prejudice of a child born from an upper class, white mother and an African servant. Other people’s feelings towards Thea’s lineage can be felt bubbling under the surface, threatening to rise with each passing chapter. And because Thea feels she is left in the dark about her mother, and the circumstances leading up to her death, she rebels against the family’s expectations of her.

I know this is marketed as a companion novel and not a sequel, but I feel that prior knowledge of The Miniaturist is advised for this one – truthfully, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read the first book. There’s something so magical about the original story, which makes it all the more enticing to step back into this world for The House of Fortune. If you have read The Miniaturist, but it’s been some time and you can’t really remember what happened, I was the same and just did a quick Google search to refresh my memory.

“Jacob is impressed by the house, Nella can tell. Its flesh might be scanter these days, but the bones are strong. He cranes his head back to admire the trompe l’oeil on the ceiling. He stares at the grisailles on the wall with the same intensity he had focused upon Thea in Clara Sarragon’s antechamber.”

Recommended for fans of The Miniaturist, as well as sweeping, magical sagas set in 18th century Europe. There’s a beauty to this setting and these characters, brought to life with Jessie’s signature prose and dialogue. Readership skews female, 25+

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

The House of Fortune
Jessie Burton
July 2022
Pan Macmillan Publishers