JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

The House of Atreus is cursed. A bloodline tainted by a generational cycle of violence and vengeance. This is the story of three women, their fates inextricably tied to this curse, and the fickle nature of men and gods.

Clytemnestra
The sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon – her hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris. Her husband raises a great army against them and determines to win, whatever the cost.

Cassandra
Princess of Troy, and cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. She is powerless in her knowledge that the city will fall.

Elektra
The youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin. But can she escape the curse, or is her own destiny also bound by violence?

Another absorbing and vivid retelling of ancient Greek myth, Jennifer Saint’s Elektra narrows in on the Trojan War and tells the ill-fated story of Clytemnestra and her tumultuous marriage to Agamemnon, as well as the tale of their daughter Elektra. Across the sea in Troy, we meet a young Cassandra, who is blessed with foresight but is cursed in that no one believes her premonitions.

When Elektra is a young girl, her father Agamemnon leads an army across the ocean to wage war against Troy. Her mother, Clytemnestra, seethes with rage for ten years because of what Agamemnon was willing to sacrifice to ensure safe passage across the seas. And over in Troy, Cassandra can foresee Troy’s demise but is powerless to stop it. Written in first person, Jennifer Saint’s Elektra follows these three women as they navigate this extended but turbulent era of history.

After reading the fantastic Ariadne last year, I was excited to devour this one. Jennifer crafts these mythical stories with great imagination — bringing to life long-known legends and tales of iconic Greek figures.

“At first, Agamemnon was a generous, joyful ruler of Mycenae, his project of uniting all the Greeks a long-held ambition that he was grateful to be realising. But, slowly, peevishness began to settle over him and I saw him fretting from time to time.”

Jennifer Saint’s writing is always rich and well-developed, bringing fierce women to life with emotion and vitality. Clytemnestra, in particular, felt the most visceral and animated, as we can easily relate to her feelings of anger and betrayal. She certainly felt the most candid as she played the long game — she waited ten years for Agamemnon to return so she can carry out her long-planned murder.

Pacing maintains throughout the novel, and Cassandra’s voice ads depth to the story because she is situated on the opposite side of the story. Jennifer Saint is bold in her depiction of these women — their narration is concise and observant, and they each provide an interesting element to the tale. Whilst I didn’t connect with Elektra as much as the other women – not until the end of the novel anyway — I still appreciated her perspective of the saga. She’s certainly the most loyal of the three women.

From memory, Jennifer’s previous release Ariadne featured a fair bit of info dumping in the book, but Elektra did not. Jennifer wove in information with more consideration, which will not go unappreciated by readers.

“I bathed her body alone. The cloths were soft, the water warm. I pulled away the ruined dress, her wedding dress. I kissed her clean skin. When she was small, she would shriek with laughter when I buried my face in the plump folds of her arms, the dimpled knees.”

Admittedly, it initially feels like quite the task trying to grasp the characters and settings. I was somewhat familiar with these Greek figures, particularly Clytemnestra, and yet I was struggling in the beginning to confirm her connection with Cassandra, and the backstory of her sister Helen and her marriage to Agamemnon.

“She was lying to herself; I could see it. She had made a convincing case, but she was wrong. I opened my mouth to tell her so, but I looked at Paris’ face again before I spoke.”

Documenting a period of history worth remembering, Elektra is emotion-laden and recommended for readers of historical sagas, and fans of Greek mythology. Readership skews female, 25+

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

Elektra
Jennifer Saint
May 2022
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

In A New York Minute by Kate Spencer

Their love story has gone viral. But it hasn’t even begun . . .

Franny meets Hayes in the opposite of a meet-cute – when her dress gets caught in the subway doors on her way home and then rips, leaving her in the fashion equivalent of a hospital gown. Hayes is the stuffy suit whose one redeeming quality is giving Franny his jacket, saving her from showing her assets to half of New York. Franny is eager to forget the whole horribly embarrassing encounter as soon as possible, but neither of them anticipated a fellow commuter live-blogging them as #subwaybaes – turning their awkward run-in into click-bait and a manufactured love story for the ages . . .

Quick to dismiss Hayes as just another a rich guy, Franny is sure she’ll never see him again, and she’s desperate to put her three minutes of viral fame behind her. But fate isn’t done with the would-be subway sweethearts just yet . . .

Set in New York City and centred around a couple whose first meeting goes viral on the internet, Kate Spencer’s In a New York Minute is a romantic comedy that is charming, fun and incredibly heartwarming.

What feels most striking about this novel is how the premise immediately draws you in — I don’t feel like I’ve come across another book like this, which is rare in this genre. Franny and Hayes meeting on the subway is a clash between two very different people — the creative, career-struggling Franny, and the anxious, analytical, assured but closed off Hayes. As their paths continue to cross, the romantic tension and build-up is very adorable. In A New York Minute is perfect for readers on the hunt for something upbeat and feel-good.

“And in an instant, everything felt impossible again. Pizza. This was the only appropriate solution to the end of this day. Plus, I could afford it, for now at least.”

Franny and Hayes’ characterisation feels believable. Both leads are flawed in their own way, and the way they tackle their insecurities is paced well and crafted with authenticity. Additionally, setting is a strong part of the novel. From the subway and the workplace, to the restaurants and the social scene, Kate captures New York City with ease. There’s a feeling of centrality that accompanies the premise of this novel, so it’s easy to believe how Franny and Hayes’ meeting becomes so viral.

Secondary characters Lola and Cleo hold great significance in the story, not just providing emotional support for Franny but adding humour and tenderness to moments throughout the book when Franny and Hayes’ paths don’t cross.

“I was normally clear on what needed to be done. It wasn’t often that I got things wrong. But in that instant on the subway, I just might have, and my miscalculation was nagging at me. Maybe I’d overstepped, assumed she needed help when she was fine on her own.”

I did think the ending of the novel felt like it meandered. It almost seemed like the story wrapped itself, but then a tragedy befalls Franny and she knee-jerkingly breaks up with Hayes, and reconciliation must eventuate. It felt a little disjointed from the rest of the novel, like that extra part at the end was an afterthought.

Additionally, the subplot of Franny and her half-sibling in Italy felt only loosely tied into the story and like it wasn’t overly gelling with the story. Sometimes I forgot about this altogether, until it wove itself back into the story.

“Of course it was weird. It was too much, too forward. Once again, I was tripping over my tongue around this woman, I never said stuff like this to Perrine, much lest people I didn’t know.”

Heartfelt, funny and full of chemistry, In A New York Minute is highly recommended for readers of contemporary women’s fiction and romantic comedies. Readership skews female, 20+

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

In A New York Minute
Kate Spencer
April 2022
Pan Macmillan Book Publishers Australia

Remember Me by Charity Norman

A heartfelt, page-turning suspense novel from the author shortlisted for Best Crime Novel in the Ngaio Marsh Awards for Crime Fiction, and for Best International Crime Fiction in the Ned Kelly Awards

They never found Leah Parata. Not a boot, not a backpack, not a turquoise beanie. After she left me that day, she vanished off the face of the earth.

A close-knit community is ripped apart by disturbing revelations that cast new light on a young woman’s disappearance twenty-five years ago.

After years of living overseas, Emily Kirkland returns to New Zealand to care for her father, Felix, who suffers from dementia. As his memory fades and his guard slips, she begins to understand him for the first time – and to glimpse shattering truths about his past. Truths she’d rather were kept buried.

Charity Norman’s Remember Me is a hybrid novel — part thrilling cold case mystery story in a small, close-knit town, and part literary story that explores the relationship between a father and daughter, recently reunited in close proximity while one progresses through a debilitating diagnosis.

When Emily leaves the UK and returns home to New Zealand to take care of her ailing father, she struggles with this new role as caretaker. Her siblings, who admittedly have helped their father in recent years more than Emily has, are nowhere to be seen, and Emily feels she cannot put her father in a home or institution. This is his home, and she feels she must stay for the foreseeable future. As her father’s memory starts to muddle and fade, he reveals truths about the past that have Emily questioning his connection to a missing local woman from two decades earlier.

“The study was his sacred domain; we children rarely set foot in there. He’d always been pedantic about keeping it tidy, everything in its place. I grabbed what I could, followed him down the corridor — and stopped dead in the doorway.”

Charity Norman does well to craft a dysfunctional family, not just between Emily and her father but also her siblings. They’ve cared for the father previously and there’s a feeling of exhaustion there, but also misunderstanding about their father’s diagnosis. There are bickering phone calls and heated conversations that any readers who have siblings will be able to relate to.

Additionally, other relationship dynamics include Emily’s mother, who left many years earlier and doesn’t appear to hold regrets, and the townsfolk, who hold significant love for Emily’s father but are also still riddled with despair from the disappearance of Leah two decades earlier.

I think the ending might divide some readers but I rather liked it — despite the truth about Leah’s disappearance initially seeming a little hard to swallow, I think Charity captured a poignant resolution that readers won’t suspect. Leah’s fate also ties in well with the journey of Emily’s father, who has been holding on to his secrets for too many years.

“Then I prowled around the car in the harsh light, cursing myself for throwing away the moral high ground. Why did I always do that? I’d been doing it since we were children. Well, I wasn’t going to call back and apologise. Never had. Bloody well wasn’t going to start now.”

Sensitivity is given around Felix’s Alzheimers, which Charity crafts with compassion and care. She also illustrates the emotions that can come with Alzheimers — the lack of understanding from the person but also their family and friends, the frustration. There is also a sense of community that can result when someone is going through this illness, as people rally together to help the person (and the family) in need.

One other notable mention includes the way that Charity captures the experience of ageing parents and watching your parents age with each passing month — that can be something we all understand, or will come to understand.

“I made my decision at three o’clock in the morning. It appalled me, but it was the only one I could make. Then I law awake, thinking about the practicalities and dreading Mum’s reaction. I finally fell asleep as the first birds began to stir.”

Heartfelt and captivating, with an engrossing mystery at its core, Charity Norman’s Remember Me will appeal to fans of family sagas like Jodi Picoult. Whilst the crime keeps the story propelling forward, I wouldn’t classify this as your regular mystery novel. Literary readers will also enjoy Charity’s writing and characterisation. Readership skews 25+

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

Remember Me
Charity Norman
March 2022
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

It’s 2017, and Olga and her brother, Pedro ‘Prieto’ Acevedo, are bold-faced names in their hometown of New York. Prieto is a popular congressman representing their gentrifying, Latinx neighborhood in Brooklyn, while Olga is the tony wedding planner for Manhattan’s power brokers.

Despite their alluring public lives, behind closed doors things are far less rosy. Sure, Olga can orchestrate the love stories of the one percent, but she can’t seem to find her own . . . until she meets Matteo, who forces her to confront the effects of long-held family secrets.

Twenty-seven years ago, their mother, Blanca, a Young Lord-turned-radical, abandoned her children to advance a militant political cause, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Now, with the winds of hurricane season, Blanca has come barreling back into their lives.

Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history, Olga Dies Dreaming is a story that examines political corruption, familial strife and the very notion of the American dream – all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.

Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming is a revolutionary, multi-generational tale about family, race, identity and politics. Two Puerto-Rican siblings living in gentrified Brooklyn are grappling with their responsibility to their mother — a radical activist who abandoned the family when protagonist Olga was twelve years old. She is now thirty-nine and her mother is a fugitive fighting for Puerto Rican independence, meanwhile manipulating her two children in a series of letters scattered throughout the novel.

Olga Dies Dreaming is a pointed commentary about American society and politics — about race and poverty, and how societal structures within America ensure that the poor stay poor, and the wealthy only gain more power. Whilst some of the political aspects of the novel may go over readers’ heads, the carefully crafted plotting and pacing still allows for an enjoyable read.

“Sometimes, when he contemplated the direction of his life, he felt his wounds were self-inflicted. He ran for office because everyone ignored his neighbourhood…these days, all eyes were on Sunset Park, and it was he, Prieto, who had put them there. For better and for worse.”

At their core, Olga and her brother Prieto are trying to prove that they’re more capable than what others believe. Olga is a savvy wedding planner, successful but depressed. Prieto may be a popular U.S congressman but he is hiding in the closet and is being blackmailed by high-powered real estate moguls. Both siblings are grappling with the trajectory of their lives.

Set mainly in the Summer of 2017, Xochitl’s writing is slick and omniscient — she’s an incredibly talented writer and this is an equally impressive debut. Her writing is observant and conveys layered emotion. Chapters end with open-ended dialogue or observations, allowing deeper character observation for the reader.

“He didn’t, in fact, agree with that assessment; he sometimes felt Olga underestimated him. When it came to business at least, Dick always saw the dark sides of things, but his gift, he felt, was for sensing the opportunities that often lie in wait.”

The pacing does differ across the course of the novel and the middle third of the book in particular feels painfully slow. The final part of the novel, once the hurricane hits, holds a much more consistent and engaging flow.

Readers who aren’t overly invested in literary fiction, nor interested in a novel that provides commentary on the American sociopolitical environment, admittedly might find their interests lulling throughout the story.

“Close up, Olga could see that Matteo was quite handsome underneath his scruffy semi-beard. He had a splattering of freckles and the kind light brown eyes that Olga used to call Coca-Cola coloured when she was a kid.”

Pointed, punchy and purposeful, Olga Dies Dreaming is recommended for literary readers. Readership skews 30+

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

Olga Dies Dreaming
Xochitl Gonzalez
January 2022
Hachette Book Publishers

The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay by Julie Brooks

England, 1919: Rose and Ivy board a ship bound for Australia. One is travelling there to marry a man she has never met. One is destined never to arrive.

Australia, 2016: Amongst her late-grandmother’s possessions, Molly uncovers a photograph of two girls dressed in First World War nurses’ uniforms, labelled ‘Rose and Ivy 1917’, and a letter from her grandmother, asking her to find out what happened to her own mother, Rose, who disappeared in the 1960s.

Compelled to carry out her grandmother’s last wish, Molly embarks on a journey to England to unravel the mystery of the two girls whose photograph promised they’d be ‘together forever’…

Julie Brooks’ The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay is a dual-timeline historical fiction debut, transporting readers from WWI England to present day Australia. Centred around two young women — friends for a decade but bound together by a shocking secret — who set sail for a new life in Australia.

In present day, Australian woman Molly is searching for the truth behind her great-grandmother’s disappearance over fifty years earlier. Not a lot is known about the reclusive and camera-shy Rose, and Molly travels to England to find out more about Rose’s upbringing, in the hope it may come to understand what really happened to her.

“For months she had imagined that Ivy, like Rose, had migrated to Australia and begun a new life. She had envisaged her as the matriarch of a clan with a long, fruitful life. For whatever reason, Rose’s life had turned sour; she hoped that her friend’s had worked out happier.”

Julie Brooks captures the friendship between Ivy and Rose incredibly well — their initial close bond and the idea that they’ll be best friends forever. But, over time, Rose starts to inhabit the role expected of her — the privileged, wealthy young woman on the cusp of taking her place in society. Perhaps without realising, she starts to treat Ivy like a servant not like a friend, and bitter tension builds between them. As secrets come to light, the friendship soon deteriorates.

As someone who reads a lot of historical fiction, I found this novel incredibly refreshing. A mystery about a great-grandmother (not a grandmother) offers something a little different to the genre. That extra generation accounts for limited knowledge about that character, forcing a deeper dig into their life to find out the truth. It also means the connection between Molly and Rose is limited, given the age difference, so the story doesn’t rely on memories or emotional connection between the characters and more on facts and evidence, which provides a more thrilling, fast-paced story.

“But Rose knew that Ivy did indeed care. She always cared what her da would do, because he had a history of doing unpleasant things. Rose couldn’t remember her own father, but she couldn’t imagine him taking to her with a willow stick or shutting her in the coal box for an afternoon.”

Class plays an important role in this novel — whilst Rose is from a wealthy, privileged family, her best friend Ivy comes from a poor, abusive household. No one expects her to secure a comfortable life, so Ivy has to believe in herself if she’s going to rise above her surroundings. She refuses to be a servant or maid for the rest of her life, and is looking for a way to carve a respectable path for herself.

The only fault I can give this novel is the prevalence of perhaps a few too many signs that point towards the twist. Molly’s memories of Rose — her personality and her hatred of being in photographs, in particular — made it a little too easy to guess the ending of the novel. But apart from that, this is one of my favourite historical fiction reads from the past 12 months.

“Molly woke breathless, struggling to escape the undertow of her dream. Plunging her face into the pillow, she tried to vanquish the lingering images. Yet in the blackness her father was there, along with the ghostly form of the long-dead Rose, drifting before her eyes.”

A rich, sweeping tale of betrayal, and how long-held family secrets can tear apart even the strongest of friendships. Recommended for historical fiction readers, The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay is skewed towards female readers, 25+

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

The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay
Julie Brooks
January 2022
Hachette Book Publishers