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

Finding Nevo by Nevo Zisin

Personal, political and passionate, Finding Nevo is an autobiography about gender and everything that comes with it.

Meet Nevo: girl, boy, he, she, him, her, they, them, daughter, son, teacher, student, friend, gay, bi, lesbian, trans, homo, Jew, dyke, masculine, feminine, androgynous, queer.

Nevo was not born in the wrong body. Nevo just wants everyone to catch up with all that Nevo is. Personal, political and passionate, Finding Nevo is an autobiography about gender and everything that comes with it.

Finding Nevo by Nevo Zisin is an inspirational memoir about identity and discovery. This is Nevo’s journey towards understanding their body and discovering who they want to be in the world.

This isn’t a long read — about 200 pages — and the book is incredibly informative. Nevo explains a lot of things about being non-binary and also transgender that readers can learn from, and this is not just medically or physiologically, but mentally.

When Nevo was going through various stages in their adolescent life, like coming out or changing their body, Nevo’s family, friends and peers didn’t always react how Nevo would’ve liked them too. It was rather confronting to read, and important to understand what Nevo’s childhood and adolescent life was like.

“Gender dysmorphia is this fun thing that happens sometimes when you exist outside of society’s very narrow understandings of gender, and it slowly started sneaking into my life.”

Nevo’s biography is really insightful, and not just for young readers. The book masterfully captures what life has been like for Nevo, both mentally but also physically. I learnt a lot from reading this.

Finding Nevo also addresses how society and the media like to portray transgender people. For example, the media describing someone as ‘being born in the wrong body’ is common, but not something that Nevo feels they went through. That isn’t them. So, it’s important to remember that every transgender person’s experiences are different, and if you don’t know what they’d like to be called, ask them. It’s important to keep them in the discussion so that you don’t end up marginalising them.

“Maybe I was neither male nor female, man or woman. Maybe the idea of gender is socially constructed through institutions and social norms we’ve created. Gender has changed through time, cultures and geographies.”

There is only one thing about this book that I didn’t particularly like, and that was the slight repetition of sentences when reflecting on past events. Often, Nevo would explain how something in their life made them feel, and then Nevo would explain how they overcame that. However, after that, Nevo would then again explain how they initially felt about it, and that final sentence always seemed unnecessary. Here’s an example of a couple of pages in the book that end up circling:

“The situation with my mum wasn’t improving. I had thought she was dealing with things in her own time, but she wasn’t confronting my transition at all, rather she was pushing it to the side an hoping it would go away…I had a few more conversations with her, then realised she needed to speak to people who were more detached from the situation…Although I still feel pain in regards to how she treated me at the beginning of my transition, her ability to take responsibility for her mistakes and apologise is what has saved our relationship.”

Even though that final sentence allows Nevo to reflect, there are quite a few moments in the book where a reflection statement is made and I think they could’ve been cut from the book. It felt repetitive, and I think the reader is able to understand the significance of these moments already.

I recommend this book to any young reader who doesn’t feel comfortable in their body, or who feels unable to be themselves around family or friends. I also recommend this book to people who feel like they have a lot to learn about gender and identity and what someone who is transgender might be going through. Finding Nevo is as much a learning tool as it is a memoir.

Finding Nevo
Nevo Zisin
May 2017
Walker Books Australia

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

Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard

When I was wild, you were steady . . .
Now you are wild – what am I?

Eden McKinley knows she can’t count on much in this world, but she can depend on Bonnie, her solid, steady, straight-A best friend. So it’s a bit of a surprise when Bonnie runs away with the boyfriend Eden knows nothing about five days before the start of their GCSEs. Especially when the police arrive on her doorstep and Eden finds out that the boyfriend is actually their music teacher, Mr Cohn.

Sworn to secrecy and bound by loyalty, only Eden knows Bonnie’s location, and that’s the way it has to stay. There’s no way she’s betraying her best friend. Not even when she’s faced with police questioning, suspicious parents and her own growing doubts.

As the days pass and things begin to unravel, Eden is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world, her best friend and herself.

Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard is a young adult novel that explores friendship, growing up, and inappropriate relationships.

When Eden finds out that her best friend Bonnie has run off with their music teacher, she is both confused and shocked. Bonnie tells her everything, but she didn’t tell her this? For most of the novel, Eden struggles to grapple their friendship (or what she remembers of their friendship). Eden doesn’t understand why Bonnie would make this huge — and very wrong — decision and not even tell her about it beforehand. And yes, it seems selfish at times that Eden is really only thinking about herself in this situation, but Eden is a teenager and teenagers can be selfish at times.

“I go up to my room and sit on my bed for a while, turning my phone over in my fingers, trying not to think about Bonnie. Her absence and silence today is, in a weird kind of way, more unsettling than anything that’s happened so far this week, and thinking about it makes me feel nauseous.”

Goodbye, Perfect also explores the relationship between Eden and her older sister Valerie. Valerie appears to be perfect in every sense. She’s smart, good-looking and excels at everything. Eden barely passes her exams, and doesn’t want Valerie around making her feel inferior.

I actually think Sara did a really great job of portraying this relationship. Sibling relations can be so tricky to illustrate in fiction without it seeming overdramatic, but I was able to relate to this part of the book. The relationship between the two sisters seemed authentic and realistic.

“I can tell that she’s sceptical but trying not to show it, her mouth twitching with the I’m-so-much-older-and-you’re-just-a-teenager smirk that is so endlessly annoying.”

Goodbye, Perfect is really dialogue-heavy, but it is a quick read. At only two hundred pages, a lot of frequent readers will get through this is one or two sittings.

I did feel like parts of the novel were a little hard to believe. Bonnie runs off with a teacher and Eden is the only one she talks to and Eden decides to keep it a secret? I feel like even a teenager would soon realise how wrong that is. Even a teenager would end up telling the authorities, because they’d realise how much danger Bonnie was in.

“Now I have Jack.”
“And, what? That’s your life plan?”
“Why can’t it be?”
“Because you’re fifteen?”
“Love is love, Eden. However old you are.”
I swear I almost hang up on her.

I also think the ending was rather rushed, and there was no real resolution to the story. It’s hard to explain any further without giving away spoilers, so I’ll just leave it at that.

I recommend this to young readers, between 12-14. I definitely think this falls to the ‘young’ end of the YA readership, because the dialogue and the interactions between the teens seem quite immature and there’s a lot of texting and over exaggerated dialogue that felt more reflective of young teens rather than older teens.

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

Goodbye, Perfect
Sara Barnard
February 2018
Pan Macmillan 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