JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Deeper Water by Jessie Cole

Innocent and unworldly, Mema is still living at home with her mother on a remote, lush hinterland property. It is a small, confined, simple sort of life, and Mema is content with it.

One day, during a heavy downpour, Mema saves a stranger from a flooded creek. She takes him into her family home, where, marooned by floods, he has to stay until the waters recede. And without either of them realising it, he opens the door to a new world of possibilities that threaten to sweep Mema into the deep

‘They say every hero has to leave home, but what those first steps are like I’m yet to know’

Jessie Cole’s latest title is quite similar to her debut novel: an outsider’s life intersects with someone from a small town. The novel is very character-driven (again, much like Darkness on the Edge of Town) and allows the reader to seep into these characters’ lives unnoticed and observe their somewhat personal circumstances.

The story is subtly tragic – Mema’s growing desire for the stranger disturbs the reader because they know that they don’t quite fit and that it’ll never work out. They live two completely different lifestyles, and Mema’s isolation from society is highlighted even further when she saves the stranger. He’s obsessed with gaining access to his email accounts and his laptop, and Mema struggles to understand why those things are important to him.

The characters intersect at the right moments so that the reader doesn’t feel overpowered by the plot or character relations. And the development of character is gradual and graceful. The novel illustrates a comparison between two separate lives and details the resulting conflict when those lives clash.

At times, the pace of the story seemed to be slow and the characters seemed stagnant. But if you can get past that and appreciate the fluidity of the writing and the raw beauty of the characters, then you’ll enjoy this novel.

My Score: 8/10

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

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

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist & unreliable narrator, a 37–38-year-old literature professor, Humbert Humbert, is obsessed with the 12-year-old Dolores Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her stepfather.

Ah Nabokov. If only I could bottle up your talent and use it.

There are so many ways that Nabokov could’ve written this story, and so many stylistic techniques he could’ve used to achieve it. The novel is poetic, lyrical, and subtly written and although it’s in third person, it really seems to be written from Humbert’s point of view. You find yourself sympathising with him, and then you become slightly horrified and confused when you realise it.

The reader is given a (disturbing) insight into Humbert’s paedophilic desires and not only is Humbert a richly fleshed out, dimensional character, but Lolita is as well. She almost seems to seduce him at times, and then is quite happy to move on when she feels it is the right time.

“I am convinced however, that in a certain magic and fateful way Lolita began with Annabel.”

Humbert’s paranoia and – at times – murderous desires capture a truly disturbed mind willing to do anything to attain and keep Lolita. And then Humbert believes he’s being followed and he and Lolita roadtrip around to various motels and hotels so that they – but mostly he – can remain undetected.

My Score: 9/10

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Kelsea Glynn is the sole heir to the throne of Tearling but has been raised in secret by foster parents after her mother – Queen Elyssa, as vain as she was stupid – was murdered for ruining her kingdom. For 18 years, the Tearling has been ruled by Kelsea’s uncle in the role of Regent however he is but the debauched puppet of the Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of neighbouring realm of Mortmesme. On Kelsea’s 19th birthday, the tattered remnants of her mother’s guard – each pledged to defend the queen to the death – arrive to bring this most un-regal young woman out of hiding…

And so begins her journey back to her kingdom’s heart, to claim the throne, earn the loyalty of her people, overturn her mother’s legacy and redeem the Tearling from the forces of corruption and dark magic that are threatening to destroy it. But Kelsea’s story is not just about her learning the true nature of her inheritance – it’s about a heroine who must learn to acknowledge and live with the realities of coming of age in all its insecurities and attractions, alongside the ethical dilemmas of ruling justly and fairly while simply trying to stay alive…

I picked this up because the book has been in the media a lot lately; Emma Watson couldn’t put it down and now it’s being turned into a movie with Emma as producer and actress. I did enjoy it, to the point where I read it in a couple of days and was anxious to see what happened next. However, the novel is setting up a lot for the sequel and I felt that at times, the story moved a little too slowly. Kelsea didn’t actually reach her keep until about 1/3 of the way through the novel, and the Red Queen (the antagonist of the trilogy) isn’t featured in the novel much.

It’s quite clear that some of the author’s thoughts are coming into the story. I’m guessing that Erika is an avid reader of fantasy. Kelsea is the new Queen of the Tearling, and yet she spends a lot of time trying to build a library in her keep? It seems a little unrealistic that one of her first concerns would be this. Also, the setting is a little strange and conflicting. It’s set in the future (you won’t think this when reading it), but has a medieval feel to it. And then Kelsea talks about how much she loves Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I always try to avoid naming popular books/movies/people etc in novels because it time stamps your book and people reading it in ten years might not relate to it. Kelsea’s love of Lord of the Rings felt strange to me – it jolts the piece and disturbs the setting. It no longer felt like a fantasy tale.

I think the second and third book in the series will be better than the first now that the world and societal relations have been set up. If it weren’t for Emma Watson, I doubt this book would be as popular as it has become.

My Score: 7/10