JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect?

This novel seems to have a similar premise to Made For You, but I think it employs more effective writing techniques. Amy Zhang is only 19 years old, and crafts a realistic character whose experiences at school prompt her to attempt to commit suicide.

The chapters switch between past and present, but Amy has broken this into separate chapters to allow for a smooth transition. The writing is quite literary, and Amy manages to reveal the deepest thoughts of a character so subtly that you don’t actually realise until much later in the novel. The dialogue is realistic and the characters are believable and dimensional. The premise is unique (which is hard to find in a YA featuring suicide – it’s usually riddled with clichés).

Liz’s character is intriguing even after completing the book. I felt like I couldn’t quite understand her and was desperate to keep reading so that I could find out (this is a good thing, and stylistically, is really hard to achieve).

I spent the whole novel thinking that the ending would include a serious twist. There was no twist, but the last page was slightly surprising and not how I expected it to end. Does that mean there was a small twist? Maybe. Although I don’t think Amy meant it as a twist. More of a shock ending to resonate with the reader and give them one of those ‘book comas’ that we all hate but secretly kind of love.

After I finished reading it, I kept thinking ‘Why haven’t I already read this novel?’ Who knows.

My Score: 9/10

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

As a child, Kathy – now thirty-one years old – lived at Hailsham, a private school in the scenic English countryside where the children were sheltered from the outside world, brought up to believe that they were special and that their well-being was crucial not only for themselves but for the society they would eventually enter. Kathy had long ago put this idyllic past behind her, but when two of her Hailsham friends come back into her life, she stops resisting the pull of memory.

And so, as her friendship with Ruth is rekindled, and as the feelings that long ago fueled her adolescent crush on Tommy begin to deepen into love, Kathy recalls their years at Hailsham. She describes happy scenes of boys and girls growing up together, unperturbed – even comforted – by their isolation. But she describes other scenes as well: of discord and misunderstanding that hint at a dark secret behind Hailsham’s nurturing facade. With the dawning clarity of hindsight, the three friends are compelled to face the truth about their childhood–and about their lives now.

Ishiguro is a stylistic genius. This novel is written almost in stream of consciousness and jumps all around between past, present, and future. And yet, it all seems to make perfect sense. And his writing is poetic and lyrical and beautiful.

Kathy narrates the novel in first person and details her time spent at Hailsham with Ruth and Tommy and how they’re destined to finish their lives as donors for people in the ‘real world’. Ishiguro weaves past and present together seamlessly, and manages to break up sections of each chapter so that you know where the story is headed. Although some believe that the story moves a little slowly, this novel is meant to be character-driven and not plot-driven. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy are all deeply-imagined characters that have been fleshed out and presented as three-dimensional protagonists.

Since I consider this novel to be a classic, I’d recommend it to anyone who reads and loves classics. I’d also recommend it to those people who are looking for something that’s ‘easy to read’ (I don’t really know how to define something like that). This conversationalist style of writing that Ishiguro has employed definitely proves easy to read and easy to follow.

My Score: 9/10

Made For You by Melissa Marr

When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

This book is good, but not amazing.

This story had an intriguing premise and plot, and the blurb on the back of the book drew me in (have you ever read a YA blurb that didn’t draw you in?). Melissa captures ‘high school’ very well – the dialogue parallels what teenagers actually say and even includes the correct emphasis on certain words. Also, Melissa presented a unique killer, one whose motivations are different to that of usual killers and has you turning the page to find out more.

However, I must now point out the flaws of the piece, and there are quite a few. Firstly, the point of view shifts between Eva and her best friend, Grace, and they sound exactly the same. Their voices don’t differ, and I don’t think Grace’s point of view adds anything to the story. In fact, I think Melissa could’ve left her as a third party character and only included Eva’s point of view and the killer’s point of view.

Secondly, the killer’s point of view doesn’t seem realistic. He tried to kill Eva because he’s in love with her (revealed in second chapter – not a spoiler), but when that doesn’t work, he tries to kill her friends in order to get to her? (in the blurb – not a spoiler) His reasoning and motivations seem a little forced and uncharacteristic. His point of view, at times, jolts the text, and sometimes I actually wished that his POV was also deleted from the book and we only knew what Eva knew.

Even though I thought the point of view in the novel could’ve been adjusted, I read this book in a few hours because I was eager to know who the killer/stalker was and what was going to happen. I’d recommend this for any YA reader.

One final note. The cover (image above) is amazing.

My Score: 6/10

All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever. This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

There are many reasons why this novel could’ve been a disaster. Firstly, it’s in second person narration, which is extremely hard to do and even harder to make effective. Secondly, the book is made up of tiny chapters, some just a few lines long. And thirdly, the story seems to jump from past to present quite quickly.

However, Berry has successfully written second person narration so that it’s engaging, evocative, and intriguing. The only other book that I’ve read that did second person narration well was Jodi Picoult’s Handle with Care. And I think the small chapters really illustrated the protagonist’s fractured state of mind – on a side note, Berry has done well to capture the time period of the novel, and the expectations of the character upon her return to civilisation.

I must now be a little negative. At the start of the novel, it’s a little unclear when the story jumps between past and present. I found myself rereading certain sections because I thought I was in the present but it turns out to be in the past and vice versa. Also, at the end when you find out what happened to the protagonist in her two years away, it all seems a little easy. Some of the events were a little unreasonable. I still don’t fully understand why the person took her, and he cut out her tongue because if she can’t talk, she can’t implicate _______ (underline intended. I don’t want to give away any spoilers). But she can write it down? Why didn’t he then cut off her hands?

Despite this, the story is interesting and had me turning the page. I just would’ve liked a little further clarification on the ending and a little more clarification at the beginning on the setting.

My Score: 8/10

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

In Detroit, violent death – along with foreclosure and despair – is a regular occurrence. But the part-human, part-animal corpses that have started appearing are more disturbing than anything Detective Gabriella Versado has ever seen. As Gabriella works the case, her teenage daughter Layla embarks on a secret crime-fighting project of her own – hunting down online paedophiles – but it all goes horribly wrong…

TK has learned how to make being homeless work for him and his friends, but something evil is threatening the fragile world he’s constructed on the streets…

Ambitious blogger Jonno is getting desperate. The big four-oh isn’t that far away, and he’s still struggling to make his mark. But then he stumbles across some unusual and macabre art, which might just be the break he needs to go viral…

Lauren Beukes travelled to Detroit and spent time taking photos of the city, and then walked around and spoke to locals about their experiences there. Lauren wanted to capture the beauty of Detroit, even though it’s a decaying city full of crime and run down, abandoned buildings. This book is about seeing the beauty in broken things, and presents a serial killer who the reader can sympathise with and feel sorry for.

Lauren illustrates a few different characters and captures each of their voices uniquely. Each point of view adds a different element to the story, and enriches the tale. Stephen King recently read this novel and said that it was “Scary as hell and hypnotic. I couldn’t put it down. Next month. I’d grab it, if I were you.”

You wouldn’t want to read this novel at night – a boy is attached to a deer and a melted woman is found in a kiln. It’s a haunting tale that brings chills to the reader, and it’s written beautifully with realistic dialogue and three dimensional characters. I must admit, I was a little confused and taken aback by the ending – I won’t give it away, but prepare for paranormal presence that seems a little jolting. Despite this, I would happily recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys crime, thrillers, or who-dunnit novels.

My Score: 9/10