JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

1974. Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown.

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

The Great Alone is — at its core — about a troubled Dad who takes his family into the wild Alaskan terrain to live. However, underneath all that, it’s about a family struggling to mend. It’s about a wife who loves her husband despite his demons. It’s about a daughter who must learn to follow her own path, despite knowing that it will have disastrous consequences.

This is a literary fiction novel about family and survival. It’s emotional, rich and unforgiving, with characters you fight for and a setting that you marvel. Leni’s family learn to survive the harsh winters in Alaska, but with the dark nights and cold temperatures comes another threat — from within the home.

“This time was bad, I’ll admit, but it scared him. Really. It won’t happen again. He’s promised me.”
Leni sighed. How was Mama’s unshakable belief in Dad any different than his fear of Armageddon? Did adults just look at the world and see what they wanted to see, think what they wanted to think? Did evidence and experience mean nothing?

The secondary characters in this novel are just as fantastic to read. The other residents in this small town support Leni’s family and help them prepare for the winter. They help Cora and Leni stand up against Ernt, who grows more volatile as the novel progresses. The reader relishes in the relationships that Leni forms, particularly with characters such as Large Marge and Tom Walker.

The Great Alone explores domestic violence, but in a very unique setting. Leni and her family live in a one-room log cabin, and when Ernt grows violent and starts beating Cora, it’s impossible for Leni not to witness it. She urges Cora to leave Ernt, but Cora loves him too much. She refuses to talk about what happens and she refuses to press charges. And so the winters roll on and Ernt grows more abusive. Leni grows up witnessing the horror of domestic abuse.

Leni knew what her father had done and the vandalism revealed a new side to his rage. It terrified her that he had done such a public thing. Ever since Mr. Walker and Large Marge had first sent Dad to the pipeline for the winter, Dad had been on his guard.

As Leni grows older, she wants to have a life of her own. She wants to fall in love, study, maybe start a family. But as her father grows more closed off and refuses to let her have a social life, she realises how difficult this will be. She wants to leave, but she knows she can’t leave her mother behind. For a while, she tries to juggle everything in secret. She pursues a relationship, whilst also standing by her parents and watching as her Dad builds an actual wall around their cabin. Soon, Leni becomes isolated, and the tension within the family and the town escalates.

This novel will appeal to readers both young and old. This is about a family navigating a difficult time in their lives, but this is also a coming of age story. Leni starts the novel as a thirteen year old, and by the end, she’s in her twenties. The reader follows Leni as she grows older, continues her learning, falls in love, and ventures off into the world to pursue her own path. There is both happiness and disaster in Leni’s life, and the reader follows it all. At times, this novel will have you smiling. At times, it’ll have you feeling dread.

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

The Great Alone
Kristin Hannah
February 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale

The Emporium opens with the first frost of winter. It is the same every year. Across the city, when children wake to see ferns of white stretched across their windows, or walk to school to hear ice crackling underfoot, the whispers begin: the Emporium is open! Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat…

It is 1917, and London has spent years in the shadow of the First World War. In the heart of Mayfair, though, there is a place of hope. A place where children’s dreams can come true, where the impossible becomes possible – that place is Papa Jack’s Toy Emporium.

For years Papa Jack has created and sold his famous magical toys: hobby horses, patchwork dogs and bears that seem alive, toy boxes bigger on the inside than out, ‘instant trees’ that sprout from boxes, tin soldiers that can fight battles on their own. Now his sons, Kaspar and Emil, are just old enough to join the family trade. Into this family comes a young Cathy Wray – homeless and vulnerable. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own. But Cathy is about to discover that while all toy shops are places of wonder, only one is truly magical…

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale is an enchanting, rich, emotional novel that is both historical fiction and a family saga.

Kaspar and Emil are two brothers who rival each other in their ability to design magnificent toys for their buyers. Their father, Papa Jack, spends a lot of his time in his workshop and doesn’t seem to venture down to the store very often. Both brothers compete with each other in their designs, and their ability to run the store.

Additionally, Kaspar and Emil compete for the affections of Cathy, a runaway teenager. She arrives at the Emporium at the beginning of Winter, and she captures the attention of both brothers. Over the coming months, both fall in love with her. Cathy is enchanted by the store and the brothers and all of their creations, and soon she chooses between the brothers.

“Around her, every aisle was garlanded in lights. High above, the Emporium dome was swirling with pinpoints of white, like a constantly falling snow. The arches that opened each aisle were wreathed in holly leaves of crepe paper and card; plump red berries of paper mache hung from every leaf.”

The Toymakers reminds me of The Night Circus, so if you liked that novel then you’ll most certainly love this one. It’s filled with wonder, imagination and magic, with rich characters that leap off the page and a story that encompasses decades.

The Toymakers takes us from 1917 to 1953, documenting the ups and downs of The Emporium and the magic within it. A major turning point in the novel is when Kaspar leaves for war and comes back a broken man many years later. His relationship with Cathy devolves, and his connection with his brother Emil appears to sever.

“It was the first frost of winter this morning. We don’t turn folk away, not on first frost.”

This is a novel for grown ups — adults who loved toys as a kid and loved the wonder of the unknown. This is for anyone who fell in love with gadgets or figurines or games, and who loved spending their pocket money in toy shops. The Toymakers is probably too advanced for a child to read, but the plot is friendly enough to young eyes in case they do decide they want to give it a try.

The writing is poetic and lyrical, flowing between paragraphs and allowing the reader to settle into the story easily. The Toymakers takes us on an enjoyable ride, not just within the walls of the shop but within London as well. Robert Drinsdale has packed so much into one book — this book moves through time quite quickly and so we follow Cathy through most of her life.

“The patchwork rabbit was a dainty thing. It had a key in its side that was slowly winding down and it hopped along, as rabbits do, until it found a few scraps of fabric left on the workshop floor. At these it bent down and started to eat.”

I did feel that Papa Jack could’ve been a much stronger character. Considering that this was his Emporium and he was known for his marvellous creations, he felt a little dry in the book and he didn’t seem to inspire or intrigue me at all. I found him quite mundane, actually.

Set in London in the 1900s, I recommend The Toymakers to those of you who love magic and all the possibilities of our imagination. This is as much a character-driven story as a plot-driven story; we experience the highs and lows of the Emporium family and the layered relationship between Emil and Kaspar. There is also a surprising twist at the end of the book that I rather enjoyed.

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

The Toymakers
Robert Dinsdale
March 2018
Penguin Random House Australia

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

If you were told the date of your death, how would it shape your present?

It’s 1969 in New York City’s Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes.

Their prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in ’80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11, hoping to control fate; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is a literary fiction novel that follows four siblings after they learn the exact date of their deaths.

Words can’t express just how much I loved this book. The writing reminded me of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara — Chloe Benjamin moves between time so effortlessly that the reader doesn’t even realise she’s doing it. In one paragraph, we’ll be reading about Klara’s life while she’s a teenager, and then suddenly she’s a few years older and the transition was so smoothly written.

Additionally, Chloe Benjamin juggles these four characters with such ease. Yes, each section of the book focuses on a different sibling, but that doesn’t mean the others aren’t present. During Simon’s life, he and Klara are very close and she’s in the storyline a lot. And yet, at no point is it confusing. At no point am I overwhelmed by the plot.

“Fourteen years later and ten states east, Daniel enters the Hoffman House to meet Eddie again…Like Eddie, Daniel is at least twenty pounds heavier than he was in 1991. Like Daniel, Eddie must be nearly fifty, if he isn’t fifty already.”

I devoured this book. I knew what was going to happen, and yet, I was desperate to get through to the end of each of their storylines. This is a book to be savoured, but it’s also a book to marvel.

These characters are beautiful, despite being incredibly flawed. They found out when they were going to die, and in a lot of ways, knowing that specific date put them on a path that led to that death. If they didn’t know when they were going to die, I wonder how different their lives would have been. But that’s the beauty of this book, because it illustrates what it would be like if you knew when you were going to die. Would you live your life differently?

It’s so common to read a literary fiction novel that’s either plot-driven or character-driven. The Immortalists was the perfect blend of both, drawing me deep into each character’s life but also filling me with dread because I am aware of their inevitable death.

“At his wedding, when he looked into the audience and saw only Gertie and Varya, something snapped in his heart like a branch. That Klara and Mira never met remained one of the biggest regrets of his life.”

Despite how much I adored this novel, I didn’t love Varya’s storyline. I found it kind of boring and completely dependent upon her career, whereas the other sections of the book heavily focused on the characters and their own thoughts and fears and their own concerns. Finishing the novel with Varya’s story felt like a letdown.

I’ve been recommending this book to scores of people. It’s not just for literary fiction lovers. It’s for those of you who are intrigued by the idea of knowing when you’ll die. It’s for those of you who love family sagas, or reading novels set in the late 90s. This is definitely a novel for adults, but I really think everyone will devour it.

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

The Immortalists
Chloe Benjamin
January 2018
Hachette Book Australia

Fallow by Daniel Shand

Two brothers elude a press witching by hiding out in the remote wilds of highland Scotland. As they travel, they move from one disturbing scenario to the next, eventually involving themselves with a bizarre religious cult. The power between the brothers begins to shift, and we realise there is more to their history.

One of them is a murderer. But it’s the other you have to watch out for…

Fallow is a darkly comic novel about the evolving relationship between two brothers — Paul and Mikey — and the terrible crime that both of them were involved in when they were young boys. This is a tense psychological thriller, deliberately making the reader feel uneasy and anxious about what is to come.

“My main concern that morning had been the tube of newspaper jammed into Sam’s armpit. I wasn’t able to make out the title but if it was a tabloid then Mikey was almost certainly somewhere inside.”

The cover of Fallow is incredibly striking, with orange and brown colours and a single image of a stag in an open field. It’s an inviting book, and I was intrigued. Fallow is under three hundred pages, so it doesn’t take too long to read the entire thing — in fact, I imagine some readers would be able to get through it in one sitting.

Fallow explores unreliable narration, manipulation and control. Paul lies and twists his explanation of events in order to control Mikey. In some parts of the novel, Micky commits horrific acts because he thinks he needs to, even though he doesn’t. Paul has lied to him and made Mikey fearful, to the point where Mikey has committed a crime for no reason.

And then, because of this, Paul has yet another thing that he can hold over Mikey. It’s a twisted relationship because Mikey feels guilty, but also confused. And over the course of the novel, he starts feeling indebted to Paul, even though he doesn’t need to.

“Mikey reached over and got him by the head and neck and I pulled his legs out from beneath him and we held his body and pushed and carried him out into the deeper water…we held the body until the water held it by itself.”

The strengths are Daniel’s writing. The prose flows so well and the imagery is beautiful. Just one sentence can say so much about the relationship between these two brothers; Daniel Shand has a real talent for using as few words as possible to convey the most meaning.

There are a few things about this novel that I know some readers won’t like. The pace is deliberately slow, to draw out the characterisation and to force the reader to anticipate what’s coming next. The plot is also a little stagnant, so there are a few times in the book where I was wondering where the story is going and why certain events were important to the overall plot.

But, the writing is beautiful and the two main characters are incredibly well-crafted and three-dimensional. Daniel Shand has done an excellent job of characterisation through actions, attitudes and dialogue.

I recommend Fallow to literary fiction lovers. Yes, there’s a fair bit of crime in the book. But it’s not your average crime or thriller novel. It’s a slow build, and it’s more character driven than plot driven. Some of you might be wondering what the point of it all is, but the ending to this novel is just extraordinary. It was surprising but also satisfying. This is a novel you have to stick with until the end.

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

Fallow
Daniel Shand
January 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Wimmera by Mark Brandi

In the long, hot summer of 1989, Ben and Fab are best friends.

Growing up in a small country town, they spend their days playing cricket, yabbying in local dams, wanting a pair of Nike Air Maxes and not talking about how Fab’s dad hits him or how the sudden death of Ben’s next-door neighbour unsettled him. Almost teenagers, they already know some things are better left unsaid.

Then a newcomer arrived in the Wimmera. Fab reckoned he was a secret agent and he and Ben staked him out. Up close, the man’s shoulders were wide and the veins in his arms stuck out, blue and green. His hands were enormous, red and knotty. He looked strong. Maybe even stronger than Fab’s dad. Neither realised the shadow this man would cast over both their lives.

Twenty years later, Fab is still stuck in town, going nowhere but hoping for somewhere better. Then a body is found in the river, and Fab can’t ignore the past any more.

Wimmera is a literary crime novel set in a small town with a big secret. Ben and Fab are best friends, and the book explores their friendship in various stages of their lives, from when they’re young boys to when they’re older. The two boys share a secret that they don’t speak of.

The novel is broken up into three parts. The first part takes place during the hot summer of 1989, when Ben gets a new neighbour, Ronnie. Daisy Wolfe and her family have just recently left town after fourteen year old Daisy hung herself on the clothesline in the backyard. Ronnie moves into their house and Ben starts doing some odd jobs around his place as a way to make extra money.

The second part of the book is predominantly set twenty years later; Fab is still living in Wimmera noticeably unsettled by what happened the last few times he saw Ben. The reader is left in the dark, because part one ends on a rather abrupt note, and then part two picks up twenty years later. Ben doesn’t appear to be living in Wimmera anymore, and Fab’s life seems to be stagnant. As the reader, you start speculating what happened at the end of that summer in 1989.

The final part of the book follows a police investigation about a body that is found in the local river. Fab is called in for questioning.

Mark Brandi has a Criminal Justice degree and used to work for the Victorian Department of Justice, so a lot of the procedural and legal aspects of the book no doubt came from his own personal experience.

Brandi captures the atmosphere of a small town really well. Gossip gets around fast and there seems to be a darkness building in the town. Wimmera also feels like a town where lots of people talk, but no one seems to ask any questions. Daisy commits suicide and people seem fast to move on from it, especially after the Wolfe family move away from town. When Ben goes to a party and people are gossiping about why they think Daisy committed suicide, there seems to be no sense of urgency to find out the real reason. Rather, everyone goes about living their lives. This contributes to the overall melancholic feel of the book – you feel like these characters are stuck in this town and that they’re never going to leave. And then when you move on to part two, you realise that Fab is indeed stuck in this town.

“He tried to imagine Daisy’s body hanging from that old steel clothesline, creaking as it shifted in the wind. He could see her dark eyes and her legs, perfectly white, swinging in the air.”

The writing is fantastic. It’s lyrical, evocative and vivid and the Brandi allows us to really understand these characters without actually telling us a whole lot about them. Through their circumstances, and how they act in certain situations, we learn all about the boys and the nature of their friendship. Fab’s dad hits him, but Ben doesn’t really say anything about it to Fab or anyone else, and Ben’s new neighbour Ronnie really unsettles him, but Fab doesn’t trust his instinct enough to do anything about it (or ask Ben about it). At times, both characters turn a blind eye to what they don’t want to discuss.

“The first time Ben went to Ronnie’s house was to cut the grass. It was Saturday and he played cricket in the morning at Great Western and they won…When Ben got home after cricket, his mum told him Ronnie had come by and he’d have to go over there after lunch.”

The first part of the book is most definitely the strongest section of Wimmera. I actually wanted to find out more about that summer, and felt like Mark didn’t develop the boys’ friendship as much as he could have. I understand what his intention was. He wanted to end part one on a rather gut-wrenching moment, but when I started part two I was actually quite disappointed with where the book went and I would’ve liked to go back to the summer of 1989. The transition between Ben’s story in 1989, to Fab’s story twenty years later, felt rather disjointed.

Ronnie was a predictable character, and I was not surprised at all when he and Ben’s ‘friendship’ became something more. I personally felt like the police investigation and the resulting trial was rushed and was too quick, and that part of the book should’ve either been bulked up and developed further, or just cut out of the book completely. There would’ve been more suspense and intrigue if the body was found but we didn’t find out absolutely everything that happened on the night of that character’s death. The book was building up really slowly and Mark Brandi was drawing the reader in with all this mystery, and then I hit part three and all of a sudden it’s moving at 100 miles per hour and the pacing doesn’t quite match the rest of the book.

I recommend this book to people who love crime fiction. This may be quite a literary book, but at the heart of the story is a mysterious death and Mark pulls you in right from the first page. People who loved The Dry by Jane Harper or Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey will love Wimmera.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wimmera
Mark Brandi
July 2017
Hachette Book Publishers