JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to out charm, outwit, and out manoeuvre his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favour or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute… and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Fans of The Hunger Games will remember Coriolanus Snow as the ruthless and fascist President of Panem. In Suzanne Collins’ prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, readers will come to understand his backstory — how did Snow go from teenager to bitter tyrant?

In this setting, the Capitol are up to their 10th Hunger Games and things are very different from how we see them over sixty years later. Nobody is watching the Games, especially in the poorer districts where they don’t even have televisions. The Capitol need to switch things up to increase excitement in the games, and Snow has a natural ability to ponder disastrous ways to engage new audiences.

There are three parts to the novel — Snow meeting Lucy Gray and gearing up for the Hunger Games, the Hunger Games themselves, and then afterwards, where Snow spends time in District 12 with his friend Sejanus and Snow’s humanity slowly starts to dissipate.

“Could there be a bigger slap in the face?” Coriolanus wonders. “District 12, the smallest district, the joke district, with its stunted, joint-swollen kids that always died in the first five minutes, and not only that . . . but the girl?”

Lucy Gray is a fascinating and complex character — she’s a talented singer with the charm and confidence to fascinate the Hunger Games crowds. Fans will find joy when they realise that the songs we learnt in The Hunger Games — The Hanging Tree, for example — were written and sung by Lucy Gray. We come to understand the history and the significance of these songs, which is a nice touch.

Because the book is written in third person, we experience events as Snow does and we never really come to understand what’s going on inside his mind. We witness as he betrays friends and kills people, but we never experience his thoughts or conflicts and it’s both a clever and chilling stylistic device.

“He’d been to the arena several times as a small boy, to see the circus, mostly, but also to cheer military displays under his father’s command. For the past nine years he’d watched at least part of the Games on television.”

This book explores the evolution of Snow but is also explores the evolution of the Hunger Games. In the beginning, we understand just how uninterested people are in them. The Capitol want to use the games to exert control over the districts, but they can’t quite work out how to do that. By the end, Snow has plenty of ideas on how to increase obsession with the Hunger Games, and it gives readers a chilling premonition because we know just how successful the Hunger Games end up being.

The novel isn’t without its flaws. The pacing was inconsistent. It takes a long time before the Games start, and they don’t actually go for that long. And then we follow a rather slow journey to the climax of the story. Whilst I loved the ending and truly felt surprised by the story of Lucy Gray and the conclusion to her tale (not a spoiler), I felt a little cheated that it took so long to get there.

Additionally, I never believed Snow’s hatred for mockingjays. It felt like it was put into the story purely to provide another connection to The Hunger Games.

“Some of the tributes dropped in their seats, chins almost on their chests, but the more defiant ones tilted their heads back and surveyed the hall. It was one of the most impressive chambers in the Capitol, and several mouths gaped open, awed by the grandeur of the marble columns, the arched windows, the vaulted ceiling.”

Recommended for fans of The Hunger Games. You’ll find yourself captivated by the setting and the story, and engaged long enough to see the story through to the end. 14+

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

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Suzanne Collins
May 2020
Scholastic Publishers Australia

The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi

A Sin Eater’s duty is a necessary evil: she hears the final private confessions of the dying, eats their sins as a funeral rite, and so guarantees their souls access to heaven. It is always women who eat sins – since it was Eve who first ate the Forbidden Fruit – and every town has at least one, not that they are publicly acknowledged. Stained by the sins they are obliged to consume, the Sin Eater is shunned and silenced, doomed to live in exile at the edge of town.

Recently orphaned May Owens is just fourteen, and has never considered what it might be like to be so ostracized; she’s more concerned with where her next meal is coming from. When she’s arrested for stealing a loaf of bread, however, and subsequently sentenced to become a Sin Eater, finding food is suddenly the last of her worries.

It’s a devastating sentence, but May’s new invisibility opens new doors. And when first one then two of the Queen’s courtiers suddenly grow ill, May hears their deathbed confessions – and begins to investigate a terrible rumour that is only whispered of amid palace corridors.

The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi is a contemporary fiction novel, drawing inspiration from history — sin eaters existed in parts of Britain until roughly a century ago. They ate a piece of bread beside people’s coffins to absolve their sins in a folk ritual with Christian resonances. Campisi’s The Sin Eater is a fictional story spun out of fantasy.

Imaginative, seductive and enticing, The Sin Eater was a surprise delight. Set in 16-century England, the story follows orphaned May Owens after she is forced to be a sin eater. She’s shunned and feared by townsfolk, and over the course of the novel, she grows suspicious of multiple deaths happening in the Queen’s Court.

“The Makerman places the collar around my neck. It’s heavy and cold, except where his hands touched it, and I have a sudden image of a horse’s bit, like he might slide it up into my mouth. But it’s worse what happens next. The second Makerman takes hold of the collar’s lock and shoves the shackle in. Even my guts feel the wards catch.”

The Sin Eater explores themes of destiny, expectation and superstition, and highlights an obsession over sins and lies, and where our indiscretions will lead us to after we die. Additionally, the novel explores class, gender and wealth.

The setting is despondent and lacks any hope of improvement. Food is scarce, and money even more so. May spends every day visiting the dying, listening to their sins so their family or friends can prepare the food. Illness doesn’t spare the wealthy, and women and babies are especially vulnerable during childbirth.

“Treason is death. And under Queen Bethany that’s not by a noose and the gallows but by gutting or burning or worse. I wait for the Sin Eater to move. When she doesn’t, I do something plain foolish. I take my hand and place it on hers. I expect it to be cool and hard like the wood of the pews, but heat pulses off it.”

Megan Campisi paints a very realistic 16th Century — her prose is tight and her descriptions vivid. Readers will find themselves absorbed in the setting and the characters. The pacing quickens as the novel progresses, drawing us deep into the mysterious deaths that surround the Queen. What secret is someone trying to unearth? And how many people are they willing to kill to achieve that?

May is really engrossing protagonist. She’s young and naive, a little too unaware, but she’s also quick to learn and fast to act. She’s got good instincts and there are a couple of times in the novel where those instincts save her life.

Admittedly, there are a lot of secondary characters in the novel and history — past mistakes — come into the plot quite a bit. The conclusion was a little hard to swallow, I had to read the ending a couple of times to grasp the twist.

“It’s always women who eats sins, since it was Eve who first ate a sin: the Forbidden Fruit. Some say that’s why so many foods for sins are fruits. But there’s other foods as well, like cream and leeks, that aren’t fruit at all.”

Perfect for readers of historical fiction and contemporary fiction, any tale with a drop of fantasy mixed in. Young readers will also love this tale.

Dark, moving, and gripping. Highly recommended. 14+

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

The Sin Eater
Megan Campisi
April 2020
Pan Macmillan Publishers Australia

The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester


England, 1939 Talented pilot Skye Penrose joins the British war effort where she encounters her estranged sister, Liberty, and childhood soulmate Nicholas Crawford, now engaged to enigmatic Frenchwoman Margaux Jourdan.

Paris, 1947 Designer Christian Dior unveils his extravagant first collection to a world weary of war and grief. He names his debut fragrance, Miss Dior, in tribute to his sister, Catherine, who worked for the French Resistance.

Present day Australian fashion conservator Kat Jourdan discovers a secret wardrobe filled with priceless Dior gowns in her grandmother’s vacant cottage. As she delves into the mystery, Kat begins to doubt everything she thought she knew about her beloved grandmother.

An unspeakable betrayal will entwine all of their fates.

The Paris Secret by Natasha Lester is another historical fiction novel mostly set during World War II, this time introducing us to three incredible women whose lives are forever changed and bound by secrets.

The dominant storyline is the one set in 1939, where we meet sisters Skye and Liberty Penrose, Skye’s childhood friend Nicholas Crawford, and his fiancé Margaux Jourdan. We do briefly move between two other storylines — 1947 where Margaux is a model for fashion designer Christian Dior, and present day 2012, where Margaux’s granddaughter Kate starts to uncover all of her grandmother’s secrets during World War II — but every time we’re transported back to 1939, Skye’s storyline maintains for almost 100 pages.

Natasha always crafts characters who are engaging and interesting, drawing the reader in with their depth and their likability. Normally, I wouldn’t think Air Transport Auxiliary would be interesting enough to want to read about it, but Natasha bring us a multi-layered core cast of characters, and you can’t help but feel swept up in the storyline.

“Tonight’s mission was named Operation Peaceful; some wag at HQ obviously had a sense of humour. The operation was a double: he and O’Farrell would each fly a Lysander carrying one SOE agent and six hundred pounds of cargo — Sten guns, money, radios, pamphlets — to a tiny field in France and land on a flare path just one hundred and fifty yards long and lit by only four pocket torches.”

Having read most of Natasha’s previous novels, I noticed a vast difference in how she captured Skye and Liberty’s backstory in this latest book. More time was given to their past and their childhood, so by the time the pacing picked up and we were in the middle of World War II, you felt more understanding of the characters. I definitely felt like more attention was given to the characters, allowing the reader a closer connection with them as the chapters progressed.

The writing is polished and tight, but also emotional and full of character. Natasha always writes such realistic dialogue, gorgeous prose, and she always illustrates fantastic female characters and really engrossing romances. Sitting at almost 450 pages, this is one of Natasha’s lengthier works but it’s worth every page.

“What she’d seen on Margaux’s face after the bloodlessness passed was a terror so stark Kat never wanted to see it again. If was as if her grandmother had witnessed death itself, as if the dark angel had reached for Margaux with outstretched arms.”

Personally, Skye’s story was my favourite. She’s intelligent, confident and ballsy, and she fights for what she believes in. She’s estranged from her sister Liberty, who is malicious, conniving and manipulative, and she’s in love with her childhood friend Nicholas Crawford. He happens to be engaged to the mysterious but bold Frenchwoman Margaux Jourdan, and Skye feels torn by her feelings for Nicholas.

All of them work together in Air Transport, supporting the RAF during the war. Skye was part of a small group of women who transported planes around the UK. It was a stressful, trying time, with a lot of pain, death, and uncertainty. Skye was a pioneer for women in the British Auxiliary, and so there’s definitely a lot of feminist undertones in the novel. Women weren’t considered to be as talented or as valuable as men, and Skye worked to change that. She paved the way for female pilots.

“A Dior gown so sensational would certainly be featured in any book on the fashion house, would have been displayed proudly by any museum, would be almost as well known as the Bar Suit. But, as far as Kat was aware, nobody knew anything of this beautiful blue dress. Why?”

Sometimes, it did feel like the 1947 storyline wasn’t quite a natural fit in the novel. It was the glue between 1939 and 2012, but it felt a bit forced into the plot. There certainly wasn’t that much time dedicated to that POV in the novel, but it was a way for granddaughter Kat Jourdan to discover her grandmother’s hidden secrets. I wonder if there was a way to just have 1939 and 2012.

Recommended for fans of historical fiction, romance, and sweeping family sagas that span across generations.

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

The Paris Secret
Natasha Lester
April 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

Deep Water by Sarah Epstein

A gripping mystery about a missing boy and a group of teenagers, one of whom knows something but isn’t telling.

HENRY WEAVER IS MISSING
Three months ago, thirteen-year-old Henry disappeared from The Shallows during a violent storm, leaving behind his muddy mountain bike at the train station.

MASON WEAVER IS TRAPPED
While Mason doesn’t know who he is or what he’s capable of, he knows the one thing binding him to this suffocating small town is his younger brother, Henry.

CHLOE BAXTER WANTS ANSWERS
Why would Henry run away without telling her? One of Chloe’s friends knows something and she’s determined to find out the truth.

As Chloe wades into dangerous waters and Mason’s past emerges, a chilling question ripples to the surface: how far would you go to keep a secret?

Sarah Epstein’s Deep Water is a young adult thriller novel set within a small town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. The residents are reticent, the past is full of secrets, and the truth about a young boy’s disappearance is about to come out.

Deep Water captures a claustrophobic setting. Set in The Shallows NSW, the atmosphere of this small town is incredibly crowded and confined, making you feel like you’re trapped along with the characters. Stylistically, this helps build tension throughout the book, because there is nothing you can do but wait for secrets to reveal themselves.

Structurally, the book shifts between character POVs but also between ‘before’ Henry went missing, and the present. Over time, we come to understand just how hard life was — and is — for Mason and his younger brother. Their mother Ivy is an alcoholic, and she’s often violent, and Mason is left to pick up the pieces.

Deep Water illustrates the notion that you never really know what’s happening behind closed doors. People suspect, but no one in The Shallows really knows how violent Ivy is when she’s alone with Mason and Henry.

“Where the hell was Henry? Surely he’d heard their mother throwing her guts up. Would it kill him to attempt the clean-up himself for once? It’s not like he hadn’t watched Mason do it a hundred times.”

When I compare this with Sarah’s previous novel, YA thriller Small Spaces, I recognise an incredible difference in how Sarah reveals clues and red herrings. When reading Small Spaces, I felt there was too much foreshadowing and the plot was a bit predictable, but with Deep Water, I felt surprised and expectant the entire length of the novel. I had theories that all turned out wrong, I had suspicions that weren’t plausible, and when I came to the ending I genuinely felt satisfied with how the storyline was wrapped up.

Sarah implements the unreliable narrator incredibly well in her novels, particularly in Deep Water with the characters Mason and Chloe. Both are very different — Mason is the rebellious, misunderstood brother of Henry who Chloe suspects might’ve had something to do with Henry’s disappearance. Chloe is stubborn, relentless and refuses to let the mystery fade from people’s minds. Truthfully, she’s kind of annoying, but she’s meant to be. She doesn’t want Henry’s disappearance to remain unsolved for any longer. She hunts down clues until she discovers the truth about what happened the night that Henry went missing.

“Both of Tom’s parents were still around back then, before the court case and his dad’s prison sentence, before his mum fled to Queensland, promising to move her son up with her when she was in a position to do so. That never happened.”

The storm, and the constant mention of water, is symbolic of the pacing in the novel. Everything happens fast, quick and without pause. As the reader, you almost feel like you’ve been taken on a ride and there’s no chance of getting off before the end.

Identity and purpose are strong themes in the book. How well do these teenagers really know their friends, or even themselves? Some of them feel stuck in The Shallows, with no way out of the town. Some feel indebted to others, forced to stay to help their family or their friends. Each character has to learn to understand where they want their life to lead, and that can be a really hard thing to do when you’re also trying to solve a disappearance.

“Henry confided in me. I knew all about the accidents and the arguments, the lean weeks when they could barely afford milk and bread. I was aware of the smashed glassware and missed birthdays, how their power was cut the same week Ivy bought a fancy display cabinet for her collectable plates.”

Admittedly, there are a lot of characters to keep up with in this town. And it’s not just the characters, but their families and their relations and as the truth starts to unravel and you realise just how people are connected to the truth, I’ll admit it got a little confusing. Sometimes it felt like there should’ve been a smaller core cast of characters to allow for a more cohesive plot.

Gripping, suspenseful, engrossing and chilling, Deep Water will have you hooked from the first chapter. Recommended for readers aged 14+

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

Deep Water
Sarah Epstein
April 2020
Allen and Unwin Book Publishers

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan has been in possession of her meticulously crafted answer since she understood the question. On the day that she nails the most important job interview of her career and gets engaged to the perfect man, she’s well on her way to fulfilling her life goals.

That night Dannie falls asleep only to wake up in a different apartment with a different ring on her finger, and in the company of a very different man. The TV is on in the background, and she can just make out the date. It’s the same night – December 15th – but 2025, five years in the future.

It was just a dream, she tells herself when she wakes, but it felt so real… Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.

That is, until four and a half years later, when Dannie turns down a street and there, standing on the corner, is the man from her dream…

Rebecca Serle’s In Five Years is an uplifting novel about life, love, heartbreak and the uncertainty of life.

In Five Years explores the concept of face and destiny, and understanding the difference between what you can control in your life and what you can’t control.

Dannie is blissfully happy with her fiancé, until she has a dream set five years in the future, and suddenly she’s unsure. It isn’t until four and a half years later, when Dannie meets the mysterious man from her dream, where she starts to think about what she wants in life and if maybe it’s different to what she’d always planned.

“Four and a half years pass. Winters and falls and summers. Everything goes according to plan. Everything. Except that David and I don’t get married. We never set a date. We say we’re busy, which we are. We say we don’t need to until we want kids. We say we want to travel.”

In Five Years is a diamond among the rough — a glorious, surprising novel that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. It took unexpected turns, and explored emotions and circumstances that many readers will be able to relate to.

There’s a lot of heartache in this book, but it’s part of the charm of the story. You don’t quite expect it, and you find yourself caught unawares by the direction of the story. The characters are raw, honest and the story is compelling.

At times, Dannie can be naive and oblivious to her own situation, but she’s also caring and considerate and present when she needs to be. Her best friend, Bella, is carefree and energetic and spontaneous, until something happens that forces her to confront her life and its current situation.

“I help David unload the trunk, handing Morgan her roller as Bella comes out of the house. She has on a pale linen dress, the bottom of which has paint splotches on it. This fills me with a very particular kind of joy. To my knowledge she hasn’t painted all year, the sight of her — hair wild in the wind, the atmosphere of creation hanging around her like mist — is wonderful to witness.”

In Five Years explores love, loss, grief and the power of friendship. At its core, this book is a rom-com. Dannie is a little too comfortable in her engagement and her best friend introduces a new boyfriend who has completely captivated her. However, the book is also about female friendship and loyalty — Rebecca Serle captures a really strong bond between Dannie and Bella, and many readers will be able to recognise that kind of friendship.

Dannie goes through more than one heartache across the course of the novel; we witness her confront her hopes and fears, her failed ‘plan’ and her desires for the future.

“Bella opens her mouth to say something, but closes it again. She likes David. Or at least, I think she does. I suspect she’d like me to be with someone more adventurous, someone who maybe pushed me outside my comfort zone a little bit more. But what she doesn’t realize, or what she conveniently forgets, is that she and I are not the same person.”

I will admit the synopsis is a little misleading — it implies the book features time travel, and that when Dannie goes to sleep she actually does wake up five years in the future and has to navigate her new life. I spent the first few chapters quite confused with the direction of the plot, but soon I just let that go and enjoyed the story for what it was.

Heartbreaking at times, but also really joyous and full of life. Recommended for female readers, 20+

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

In Five Years
Rebecca Serle
March 2020
Hachette Book Publishers