JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Heist by Daniel Silva

Gabriel Allon, art restorer and occasional spy, searches for a stolen masterpiece by Caravaggio in #1 New York Times bestselling author Daniel Silva’s latest action-packed tale of high stakes international intrigue.

Sometimes the best way to find a stolen masterpiece is to steal another one…

I think this is actually the first ‘spy fiction’ novel I’ve ever read. It’s fast-paced and a globe trotter. This story is not just about stolen artwork. Gabriel Allon, whose wife is pregnant with twins, is asked to help when Jack Bradshaw is found murdered. Bradshaw was known for ‘dodgy dealings’ and stealing and selling expensive artwork. As you can probably guess, Bradshaw is not the only body that’s discovered in this story.

Sometimes I found the novel to be quite confusing, and I think ‘spy stories’ work best as movies because they’re much easier to follow. The plot was fast-paced and the characters seemed to be able to figure out things and come up with these elaborate plans in two pages, and then the reader is left with questions that they feel don’t get answered. A few times I had to backtrack and reread certain pages because their conversations were ripe with lingo I didn’t understand and were almost short-hand.

Although I think the middle section of the novel was unnecessarily complex, I was intrigued by the conclusion of the story. Unexpected events occurred, and the ending was surprising.

This was the first Daniel Silva novel, and I recommend it only to people who have read his work before or people who have read a fair bit of spy fiction previously. Otherwise, it’s a little hard to get used to the pace and you feel like you’re reading the second book in a trilogy without having read the first.

My Score: 7/10

The Not So Secret Emails of Coco Pinchard by Robert Bryndza

Coco Pinchard was never a single thirty-something. She married young, had a son, and put her dream to be a writer on hold. Now her first novel is published. Husband Daniel has greyed nicely into a silver fox, and son Rosencrantz is grown up. It should be time to enjoy life. That is, until the annual family Christmas when her hideous mother-in-law Ethel comes to stay, and Coco opens her gift from Daniel. It’s not the jewellery she chose, but an iPhone. This marks the start of Daniel’s mid-life crisis and she catches him in bed with a younger woman.

The iPhone becomes a confessional of sorts, through emails to her friends Chris, an ageing trustafarian and Marika a slightly alcoholic schoolteacher. Coco documents her seemingly endless (and often entertaining!) run of bad luck. Then she meets the hunky Adam and she’s back in the world of dating as a single forty-something…

This book is well-written and engaging, and the book maintains the reader’s interest (which is hard to do when the book is made up entirely of emails). It does take a bit to familiarise yourself with the characters in the story – they don’t have common names (*cough* Rosencrantz *cough*) and it takes a bit to warm up to them.

I do think the ‘trigger’ – Coco finding Daniel in bed with someone else – needs to happen sooner in the story. It takes a little too long to get there, and the reader is left wondering, ‘so what is going to happen in this story?’ for the first 25 pages. The best piece of writing advice I’ve ever been given is ‘start on the day that’s different’. This story needs to start a little closer to the day when Coco finds out Daniel is cheating, so that the reader is engaged from the start.

The dialogue is well written and Coco’s life is a strong reminder of Bridget Jones’ Diary. Although sometimes things happen to Coco that seem a little farfetched and even if it happened to Bridget Jones, it’d be a little unbelievable. Robert has written this novel well, and Coco’s voice is spot on for a woman her age. The plot is well-paced (although at times a little slow moving) and events seem to unfold in a natural, believable manner.

My Score: 7/10

Darkness on the Edge of Town by Jessie Cole

When a stranger crashes her car outside Vincent and Gemma’s bush home, their lives take a dramatic turn. In an effort to help the stranded woman, father and daughter are drawn into a world of unexpected and life-changing consequences. DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is a haunting tale that beguiles the reader with its deceptively simple prose, its gripping and unrelenting tensions, and its disturbing yet tender observations.

I’ve had ‘Deeper Water’ (Jessie Cole’s latest novel) on my reading list for a while now, but thought it was best to read Jessie Cole’s earlier work first. The cover drew me in. I’ve been reading fantasy lately, and the ominous and melancholic atmosphere evoked from the cover really seemed like it would be a nice change.

This book is genius. It’s more character driven than plot driven, and reminds me a lot of Margaret Atwood’s earlier work. Vincent and Rachel are three dimensional and realistic characters, and dialogue is definitely the strongest part of this story. Gemma seemed a little stereotypical, especially as the book progressed, and I think Jessie could have dialled back Gemma’s point of view and featured more of Vincent’s perspective.

This story is dark and frightening and I couldn’t put the book down – I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys literary books. Some readers may think that nothing much actually happens in this book, but the exploration and development of character is more than enough to produce a good story. The point of view shift between Vincent and Gemma helps propel the story forward and is a refreshing change. Now that I’m familiar with Jessie Cole’s writing, I’m going to pick up a copy of ‘Deeper Water’.

My Score: 9/10

The Giver by Lois Lowry

 

Jonas’ world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

I won’t lie. I picked up this book because the ‘major motion picture’ is about to come out, and I was curious. A lot of people seemed to read this in high school, and until the movie trailer was released, I’d never heard of this book. And to think of all the books I had to read in high school that I didn’t enjoy, and here was this book that I would’ve loved to have read in high school.

This novel is fast-paced and has an intriguing premise. It is a great children’s book and I can see why kids would love it. However, in saying that, the book probably could’ve been double the size and helped to fill in a few gaps that I noticed. I read this in a few hours and I wanted to know more about The Giver’s memories and about Jonas’ reaction when he finds out what ‘releasing’ entails. I think that there isn’t enough stylistic development between when Jonas makes this discovery and when he runs off with Gabriel.

Although the novel is fast-paced, at times it was a little too quick. The novel is supposed to take place over approximately one year and I didn’t get that from the text. It seemed like one month, maximum. And I feel like the social dynamic between Jonas and The Giver could’ve been explored more, but since this is children’s fiction, Lowry can get away with it.

My Score: 8/10

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

I feel obliged to adore all classic books simply because they’re classics, and although that statement works well for Perfume or Lord of the Rings, I didn’t love Robinson Crusoe as much as I would have liked. Perhaps it was because Crusoe, who survives a shipwreck and is stranded on an island for 28 years, isn’t actually stranded until 1/3 of the way through the novel. Or perhaps it’s because Defoe goes into such great detail about Crusoe’s time on the deserted island that it made me a little sleepy.

Crusoe spends 28 years building his own fortress on the island (mostly from things he salvaged from his destroyed ship) by taming animals, gathering food, and learning to hunt. Although detail is needed for the reader to envision Crusoe’s predicament, I often skimmed certain sections of a page because I didn’t feel like reading another explanation of how Crusoe grew his crops and organised them.

I must applaud Defoe on his ability to skip ahead of time without jolting the reader. Much like how Suskind’s Perfume jumped ahead seven years, Defoe is able to skip a couple of years in one line of prose, and the reader rolls with it. But then again, after reading the ’28 years’ in the blurb, the reader is probably aware that some sections of the book are going to skip ahead a few years.

My Score: 7/10