JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

February 2016 Wrap Up

This is my first monthly wrap up for Jess Just Reads, after an extensive overhaul of the website and complete revamping, including a new layout, structure, feature images, information, and new sections of the website (this wrap up section, for example, and also the giveaway section). Firstly, let me run through all the books I bought/borrowed in February 2016.


1. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

I’ve borrowed this book off a friend to read, and I’m currently about half way through it. I loved Never Let Me Go (you can read the review of that HERE) and I’ve been dying to read another Ishiguro book ever since I finished that one. The Buried Giant is about a couple who leave their small village and travel to see their son, who left quite some time earlier. The book blends fantastical elements with reality, which is what initially intrigued me about it. Plus the cover of the book is stunning. Unfortunately, I might not be able to finish this one – it’s a little slow, and I’m really struggling. But we’ll see!


2. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

I heard so much about this book when it came out last year – Charlotte did a lot of events and signings and I heard rave reviews about how fantastic this book is. And now that I’ve read it (you can read my review by clicking on the title above), I can say that it really does deserve all the praise and all the awards. It says so much about modern society and it is so perfectly written. A masterpiece, actually.


3. When We Collided by Emery Lloyd

As a YA fan, I couldn’t pass up to opportunity to read this one. A blogger friend has lent me the proof of this book and I’m really excited to delve into it.


4. Torch by Cheryl Strayed

I loved reading Wild last year (you can read my review HERE), so I picked up Torch at the bookstore a few weeks back.


5. This Shattered World by Amie Kauffman and Meagan Spooner

This Shattered World is the sequel to a fantastic science fiction YA novel called These Broken Stars, which I finished reading a couple of weeks ago. The first book was fantastic and I’m looking forward to seeing where Amie and Meagan take the series.

 

So those are the books that I acquired in the month of February, and here’s a brief list of the various books I read in both January and February (and am in the process of writing reviews for at the moment):

Books I read in January and February:

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

The Art of Crash Landing by Melissa DeCarlo

Eat the Sky Drink the Ocean (a collection of short stories by many different Australian authors)

The Stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard

Lost & Found by Brooke Davis

These Broken Stars by Amie Kauffman and Meagan Spooner

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

 

 

The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

She hears her own thick voice deep inside her ears when she says, ‘I need to know where I am.’ The man stands there, tall and narrow, hand still on the doorknob, surprised. He says, almost in sympathy, ‘Oh, sweetie. You need to know what you are.’

The Natural Way of Things is a poignant, heartbreaking novel that explores contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and reminds me a lot of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

This novel is about two women who awake from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in an abandoned property in the middle of a desert. Strangers to each other, they have no idea where they are or how they came to be there with eight other girls, forced to wear strange uniforms, their heads shaved, guarded by two inept yet vicious armed jailers and a ‘nurse’. Doing hard labour under a sweltering sun, the prisoners soon learn what links them: in each girl’s past is a sexual scandal with a powerful man. They pray for rescue — but when the food starts running out it becomes clear that the jailers have also become the jailed. The girls can only rescue themselves.

With beautiful prose, heartbreaking helplessness, and ruthless guards that hunt them, The Natural Way of Things is something to be admired. It is one of those novels that you finish and you’re forced to sit back and ponder over for quite some time. You feel like you understand the meaning of the story, but you know that there were so many subtle undercurrents to the tale that you haven’t fully grasped yet.

These women were shooed away from society because of their crimes, and there is no escape for them. This feminist novel highlights how women are viewed in society, especially when involved in a public sex scandal. Some of these women are innocent and some are guilty, and yet they’ve all been grouped together and deemed guilty by those above them. They are deemed unwanted, unloved, uncared for, and they soon grow mad in their circumstances and try to clutch onto any chance they have of escaping.

Charlotte Wood uses such beautiful language to craft these characters, and soon we find ourselves understanding not only the girls trapped there, but the male guards who clearly don’t fully understand the part they play in this prison. They are merely middle men, who are being told what to do and what to think and who don’t realise that they too are being repressed and moulded by society.

This novel explores humanity, misogyny, sexism, survival, feminism, hatred, and society’s tendency to blame women or accept the viewpoint of a powerful and dominant figure. A fantastic read – a must read. I recommend this to everyone, both men and women, youth and adult.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.

Who else is re-reading this ahead of the sequel release? Who else is so excited that Go Set a Watchman is coming out soon? The day it’s released, I’ll be outside the bookstore yelling ‘just take all my money’ and buying the first copy I see. Because this book is brilliant, and after 50-odd years, Harper Lee is expected to produce an equally-superb sequel.

First of all, this book is nothing like how I remember when I read it in Grade 10. True, I didn’t want to read it in Grade 10 because I was forced to read it in school, and we all know that if a child is forced to read something, they won’t enjoy it.

I remember this book being all about the court case for the alleged rape of a white girl by a black man. And although this case is mentioned a few times ahead of the court case, the trial doesn’t actually start until pretty much the final 50 pages of the book.

I feel like if this book wasn’t written by Harper Lee, and an author right now thought about writing it, the court case would start in the first 50 pages. It seems that with the current fiction market in the publishing industry, the book has to ‘grab the reader in the first chapter’. And this does help. BUT what To Kill a Mockingbird actually does in the first 250 pages is much more. It establishes setting and social and racial interrelations. It establishes the relationship between Scout and her brother and her father. It highlights their family values and their respect for black people. It also introduces a melancholic but scary atmosphere. The book seems dark and ominous and you worry for the characters – you worry more in the first half of the book than towards the end of the book when Scout and her brother are attacked (spoilers, sorry, but if you haven’t yet read this book, what have you been doing for the past 50 years?).

The dialogue is consistent and the characters have depth. Atticus is not overly affectionate, but is an inspirational father figure in literature. This book is just as good a re-read as it is the first time you pick it up. And it’s not overly long, so hurry up and read it before the sequel comes out.

My Score: 10/10
Buy at BOOKTOPIA or BOOKWORLD

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it’s the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.

This is another novel I picked up because I’d heard so much about it on social media. It’s a huge hit among the YA book bloggers, and I had high hopes. The writing is well done, and Gayle Forman weaves between present and past effectively. There are moments in the book where you really sympathise with Mia and want to find out what happens. However, there are a lot of flaws as well, and I really struggled to get into the story and the characters.

Some parts of the story are a little unrealistic. Like the part where Mia plays Adam’s ‘body like a cello’ (it sounds sexual, but it’s not supposed to be). Cello bow and all. It was cheesy. And cringey. Also, Mia’s parents aren’t like all parents, either. Not all parents are laidback and encouraging and cool. A lot of reviews I’ve read of this book are ‘OMG I cried so hard I couldn’t control myself’. I didn’t even come close to crying – when was I supposed to cry?

The novel is called If I Stay because it centres around the idea that Mia can choose if she wants to stay or not. But there doesn’t seem to be any dilemma in the novel at all. The whole time she is just telling the reader about her life and then explaining the events as they unfold in the hospital. There seems to be no moral decision plaguing Mia’s conscious about staying or going. Also, the ending is slightly predictable.

Mia and Adam’s relationship doesn’t seem three dimensional – at first, I thought there’d be a twist that he was cheating on her with Kim (re-read the scene where the two of them arrive at the hospital and you’ll agree with me). Adam doesn’t seem realistic; his actions in the hospital don’t really mirror his actions in Mia’s memories. It doesn’t seem like their relationship is going to last and yet Mia keeps telling the reader how much she cares for him. It seems a little forced.

I’d recommend this book only to regular YA readers who don’t care too much for realistic characterisation and plot development.

My Score: 6/10
Buy HERE

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