JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell is an author who has such a long backlist of critically acclaimed books that I’ve been trying to find time to read. Her 2013 young adult novel Eleanor and Park was one of my favourite novels of that year, and Carry On tackles some really necessary and age appropriate themes for a young adult novel.

Carry On is about Simon Snow, aka the worst chosen one to have ever been chosen. He is returning to Watford, a magical school in England for his eighth and final year. And over the first few months of his final schooling year, he is forced to come to terms with himself as the Chosen One, destined to defeat the Insidious Humdrum – a creature creating magical Dead Spots all over England. Additionally, Simon is forced to befriend his nemesis and roommate Baz (who he’s fairly certain is a vampire and is trying to kill him) and has agreed to help Baz determine the cause of his mother’s death, who was the previous headmistress at Watford before the current Mage was instated.

The novel is very refreshing – it’s a witty and wildy fun story. It’s told through several narrative voices, including Simon, his roommate Baz, his friend Penelope, and his girlfriend Agatha. Simon and Penelope’s friendship reminded me a lot of Hermione and Harry’s friendship in Harry Potter.

I was sceptical at first because it sounded like an eerily similar plot to Harry Potter, but Rainbow was able to take a premise and a cast of characters and present them in a unique way. She did a marvellous job of crafting her own magical world using shared elements from Harry Potter and other novels set in magic schools.

Carry On begins after Simon has already spent seven years at this school. So the reader really is thrown into the story and for the first fifty pages, they feel like they don’t understand what’s happening. But that’s the appeal of the novel. You miss that first few years of schooling year where Simon meets all of the other students and bonds with his friends, and you simply find out about previous events from passing comments by the characters. It means the reader is really engaged in the story, but it also provides a lot of comic relief.

Simon is a fantastic protagonist. His girlfriend has just broken up with him, and he doesn’t really have any special magical ability – half of the time, he can’t even make his wand work. He seems a little lost, and unsure, and he’s constantly worried about Baz’s next prank or trick that could get Simon killed. It’s a comedy of errors for Simon, and it’s a series of hilarious plot points for the reader.

The relationship between each of the characters is wonderful. The dialogue is realistic and hilarious, and quite early on in the book Rainbow drops in a major twist that I didn’t anticipate. This is a spoiler-free review so I won’t say it, but Rainbow Rowell really has a way of writing books that you want to read in one sitting because they effortlessly draw you in. She’s a master at crafting three dimensional characters with raw, moving stories and motives that make the reader relate to them.

Rainbow tackles many themes in the novel that are highly necessary for its teenage readership. Two characters in the book are coming to terms with their homosexuality, and Simon of course is trying to understand his role in this magical world (considering he doesn’t really seem to have that much magical ability). This novel pays homage to the Harry Potter series through its structure and plot progression. Both books are set in the United Kingdom and Watford seems to resemble Hogwarts in many ways.

Rainbow Rowell weaves magical fairytale and romance into one story, and before you know it, you’ve read the 600+ page book a lot quicker than you originally thought possible. Carry On is a love story, but also an entertaining young adult novel with lots of mystery. It’s charming, delightful, poignant, laugh-out-loud and just a wonderful read. Rainbow has created warm, fun, complex characters; if you loved Harry Potter and you’re looking for something that feels similar, Carry On comes highly recommended.

The Courtesan by Alexandra Curry

The Courtesan
Alexandra Curry
June 2016
Published by Allen & Unwin

The Courtesan is a historical fiction novel set during the Qing dynasty, and the book follows Sai Jinhua’s life during the extraordinary twilight decades of this dynasty. This novel was inspired by the real-life courtesan Sai Jinhua, who to this day, is still considered a legend in China.

It’s hard to believe that this is a debut novel for Alexandra Curry – she has crafted a tale that takes the reader from the depths of the Chinese empire to the palaces of Vienna. In 1881, seven-year-old Jinhua is left an orphan, alone and unprotected after her mandarin father’s summary execution for the crime of speaking the truth. Jinhua is sold to a brothel-keeper and subjected to horrible torture at the hands of the men who visit her. She struggles to understand where her life is now headed, but she holds on to her father’s legacy to remain headstrong to survive.

Soon after she is brought into the brothel, a troubled scholar takes Jinhua as his concubine (mistress) and she becomes enthralled in his tumultuous relationship with his first wife, who is extremely jealous of Jinhua.

San Jinhua is a determined, strong character. She’s smart enough to understand the world she inhabits, but confident enough to try and break the mould and adapt her life to suit her needs. She stays strong, even when she shouldn’t. She is able to reminisce on her bond with her father to get her through some rather tough circumstances, and even though this book can be quite distressing to read in some parts, it highlights a part of Chinese history that some may have since forgotten.

The Courtesan is a raw, moving and inspired tale of loss, survival and determination. We follow Jinhua through her worst moments and watch her build herself up as a survivor amidst a large amount of death and defeat. There are particular scenes in the novel that Alexandra thankfully decided to skip over. We don’t have to read about the horrific, painful process of Jinhua’s feet being bound, only the lead up to it as the brother keeper prepares Jinhua for the process. Again, we don’t have to read too many detailed scenes of Jinhua’s sexual assaults, but we do read about her recovery and how each experience affects her afterwards.

The Courtesan highlights the history of China’s relationship with the West and distills Jinhua’s journey of untold miles to discern what is real and what is abiding. I really love historical fiction and this novel didn’t disappoint. It’s masterfully crafted and exquisite in detail and description. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adult fiction or historical fiction.

Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon

Leaving Lucy Pear is a fictional novel set in 1920s New England that follows the entangled lives of two women who are both mothers to the same girl.

In 1917, a sexual mistake leaves the young and unwed Beatrice Haven pregnant at eighteen. Her parents send her away to live with her Aunt and Uncle during the pregnancy, with the plan that the baby will be sent straight to an orphanage after being born. However, after having the baby, Beatrice sneaks out of her uncle’s house and leaves her newborn baby at the foot of a pear orchard, with the hope that the family who steal their pears will discover the baby and claim it as their own. Bea’s plan succeeds, and she watches as another woman claims the infant as her own. This is Bea’s way of leaving her shameful secret behind and making a fresh start.

But ten years later, both of the women’s lives intersect again. Beatrice, who previously had a bright life ahead of her, is now a fragile, broken woman who hides from her disappointments and refuses to face them. She hires Emma Murphy – the woman who found baby Lucy Pear under that orchard – to be a nurse to Bea’s uncle Ira.

Meanwhile, Lucy has grown up into a confident, capable and headstrong young girl, who is desperate to flee to Canada. She is dressing as a boy to get work so that she can save money, but she often thinks about her real parents – she worked out long ago that her lack of resemblance to her siblings meant she was adopted.

Leaving Lucy Pear emanates the feel of a Victorian novel. In the present, we’re thrust into a time where Prohibition is in full swing, and post-WWI America is in the midst of rampant xenophobia and all of the characters can’t help but question their future and where they’re headed. Anna Solomon alternates chapters so that they focus on different characters, and although this does not seem entirely unnecessary, each character’s suffering and uncertainty is thrust into the limelight. Their hopes and dreams remain unfulfilled, and this stays with the reader long after they’ve finished the book.

Anna has a way of drawing you in, so that you love all of these characters despite their many flaws. You root for them and you cheer for them, but at the same time that sinking feeling in your stomach keeps growing where you know that their lives could be heading in a dramatic turn. Emma has more children than she can afford and a drunk, volatile husband Roland who is physically abusing Lucy. And Anna allows us to revisit Bea’s life after she gave up Lucy – her fragile psychology, her breakdown and institutionalisation, her withdrawal, her failed marriage to a homosexual man Albert, and her gradual depression and sadness.

Anna has done a wonderful job of weaving together a group of characters who are all dealing with the consequences of their actions. None of them are perfect, and yet they all seem to be aware of it. This book is set against one of America’s most tempestuous decades and the novel masterfully dives into class, freedom and the importance and meaning of family.

Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas

Because You’ll Never Meet Me is a wonderful, literary young adult debut from Leah Thomas. It’s full of originality and promise, and it really tugs on the heartstrings of its readers.

Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity, and contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.

This book explores friendship, trust, confidence, anxiety, depression and all of the things in between. Leah has also woven in some dystopian elements (Ollie being allergic to electricity) into the story to give it that bit of extra originality and intrigue.

This book is just as beautiful as it is sad. Ollie has never known was ‘normal’ is. He’s never known what a party is like or a television or a computer, and although he seems fine with this in the beginning, he also feels isolated. It’s just him and his mother, and as he gets older, he gets curious. His friend Liz introduces him to things that he has never understood, and then just as he comes to desire a new life with better opportunities, the realisation that Ollie is never going to be cured means that these things are subsequently taken away from him.

Because We’ll Never Meet Me is a story of friendship and hope, even during the strangest and stressful of times. This is not a romance YA novel, but a story of two unlikely friends who never meet but form a bond that they both were in desperate need of. Because of each other, Ollie and Moritz are able to break out of their shell and to start daring themselves to do things. They start to push their boundaries to see what they’re capable of. And yes, this causes some accidents and some heartbreaks, but it also allows the boys to grow up and mature and confront their issues and their doubts. It seems like there was a veil over both of them until they ‘met’, and then together they began to accept their situations and learnt to confront them.

This novel is powerful, dark and wonderful and I really enjoyed it. I’d recommend it to all young adult readers, as well as those of you who enjoy sweet stories without a strong romantic element.

With Malice by Eileen Cook

With Malice is a young adult novel about eighteen-year-old Jill Charron, who wakes up in a hospital bed after a car crash. She’d been in Italy with her best friend Simone and their car went off the edge of a cliff and Simone died.But Jill has amnesia and doesn’t even remember being in Italy. She certainly doesn’t remember the accident, and now she requires a press team and a lawyer because it looks like the accident wasn’t actually an accident, and Simone’s family think Jill deliberately drove that car off the cliff.

This book is the perfect novel for a summer holiday read, or when you feel like reading something easy. I read it in one sitting and I was very absorbed in the book. The classic ‘did she do it?’ storyline was enough to keep me entertained. The story moves at a fast pace and slowly, through interview transcripts and the occasional flashback, you find out about Jill’s time in Italy over the summer.

The reader starts to receive conflicting bits of information. Simone’s parents give different information to their classmates, and the tour guide reveals things about Jill and Simone that Jill can’t believe they did. The reader starts to question what is the truth and what is a lie.

The story of Jill’s car crash makes the news and Jill becomes the centre of a murder investigation. The media is portraying her as a sociopath who killed Simone in a jealous rage. Evidence starts mounting, but Jill still can’t remember the summer and she doesn’t believe the things that people are saying about her. Jill works to piece together the previous two months and work out who is responsible for Simone’s death.

Eileen Cook has crafted a story where the reader begins to suspect everyone of something. Jill’s hospital roommate could be suspicious – so could her father. Or perhaps it’s the man who Jill and Simon both fell for on their Italian summer holiday? Also, With Malice is not just written in prose. Eileen has filled the book with interview transcripts, holiday guides, flashbacks, and news headlines and news articles. This forces the reader to concentrate on the information being given to them, because there are subtle clues being delivered in those chapters.

This is a great thriller novel for younger readers. It’s a short novel and the chapters are broken up with different styles of writing, so it’s easy to read for those not yet confident enough for adult thriller novels. There are a lot of surprises in With Malice to keep the reader guessing and to keep them interested in finding out what happened. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would highly recommend it.