JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Astrid Notes by Taryn Bashford

Astrid Bell
Dutiful daughter. Classical singer. Secret pop songwriter. And suffering from stage fright.

Jacob Skalicky.
Trust-fund kid. Indie singer. Immensely gifted performer. And refusing to sing again.

Are they polar opposites? In his grief and fury at the world, Jacob certainly thinks so. But when Jacob loses everything and Astrid uncovers a shocking family secret, they may need each other to make sense of their lives.

The Astrid Notes is the second YA novel from Queensland author Taryn Bashford, this time set within the complex and high-pressure world of music and singing.

Jacob — who readers may remember from The Harper Effect — is navigating his way through a difficult time. After a late night gig, his fellow band members all die in a car accident. Jacob has survivor’s guilt, feeling like he’s lost his purpose and he starts to give up on his music and his singing.

To make everything worse, Jacob’s parents are fairly absent from his life but his father is constantly pressuring him to reconsider his career and his path, and to give up on this music dream of his. His father is a bully, and the reader can physically feel the effect that his father is having on Jacob’s physical and mental state.

Astrid is conflicted about many things. She’s an incredibly talented opera singer but she has stage fright and she doesn’t know how to fix it. She’s six months shy of 18, which is when her father promised to tell her how her mother died, but she wants to know now. Why does she have to wait? Astrid assumes her mother —who was an extraordinarily talent singer as well — died giving birth to her, and Astrid feels an enormous amount of guilt about this.

Naturally, when Astrid and Jacob’s paths cross, they have much in common.

“Four days after breaking my hand. I bite the bullet and am standing outside the doc’s house listening to Astrid sing. I like her sound even more than I like Yolanda Gustav. How can someone so small pack that much power?”
JACOB

The Astrid Notes explores some pretty heavy topics — death, alcoholism, depression, and parental pressure. I imagine there’ll be many readers out there who could find some comfort in what these characters are going through.

The POV shifts between Jacob and Astrid quite often — sometimes after only two pages — and I think the characterisation within these short moments was managed really well. From the beginning, we understand the characters’ motivations, their fears and their worries, and how their interactions with other people is a reflection of their struggle to overcome the issues they’ve been going through.

“Something has changed. He’s changed. It’s as if the older I get, the more the unpredictable side of him is taking over. Mr Maestro’s winning. It’s like living inside my own opera and the demon has gained ground. And I’m to sing, whether I want to or not.”
ASTRID

I think what does let this book down is some of the jarring references to pop culture that date the book and add nothing to the character’s inner dialogue. It makes the text read a little too juvenile for the characters, and the references do feel out of place — if there was no way to seamlessly weave them in, then I think they should’ve been culled in the editing.

“As always, I lost that argument. Should’ve kept my mouth shut because I probably made everything worse. Like the main character in a Step Up movie, I either pass this audition or my music dreams are over.”
JACOB

“I’m small, so being engulfed by Maestro has always felt like being hugged by the hero at the end of a movie or when the music score from the final scene of Lord of the Rings blasts in your head and you’re sure everything’s going to end well.”
ASTRID

A heartwarming and engaging follow up to The Harper Effect, with loveable, relatable characters and a rich plot. Taryn Bashford captures the world of elite music with authenticity. You’ll fall in love with Astrid and Jacob from the beginning, all the way through to the last pages. Recommend for young readers, 12+

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

The Astrid Notes
Taryn Bashford
July 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

River Stone by Rachel Hennessy

Pandora, of the River People, wants more than her village can provide. When disaster comes to her people, Pan has the opportunity to become their saviour and escape her inevitable pairing with life-long friend Matthew. She wants to make her own choices. Deep in her soul, she believes there is something more out there, beyond the boundaries, especially since she encountered the hunter of the Mountain People.

A story of confused love, difficult friendships and clumsy attempts at heroism, Pan’s fight for her village will bring her into contact with a whole new world, where the truth about the past will have terrifying reverberations for her people’s future survival.

River Stone is the first book in a new dystopian YA series from Australian author Rachel Hennessy. The story is about survival and bravery, but it’s also about family, legacy and expectation.

At first, I thought The River People were a cult. The village is small, ruled by a male elder, and teenagers are told who they are to be paired with. They don’t get to choose who to have children with, and who or what they want isn’t really taken into consideration.

It all seemed very cultish, and I guess it kind of is, but in a dystopian setting. Most of the world was wiped out after a mysterious virus started infecting people, and The River People are just doing their best to survive and continue procreating so that they don’t die off. In the blurb, it says “when disaster comes to her people”, and I half expected that to be a mass suicide like you see in cults, but I was just overthinking it. Pandora’s people are struck down with the mysterious virus and it’s up to Pandora and her friends to travel into the city and find the cure.

“Caro chews on a large piece of meat. He and Bayat have prepared a piece of the cougar on a long, whittled spear which they’ve placed over there pit, held up by two forked branches driven into the ground. They have turned it sporadically over the course of the afternoon and then carved slices off it.”

Young readers will be drawn to Pandora’s resilience, determination and strength. She’s worried for her parents, but she’s also worried for her village. She doesn’t want to let anyone down and she certainly doesn’t want to fail on this mission.

Pandora has to navigate this new world if she’s going to succeed. But she also has to navigate a love triangle, and the group of friends she’s traveling with. Tensions rise and friendships are damaged.

“At the very least, the training had ensured I could just keep up with Bayat and as we sped along the path to the caves, I realised my muscles were stronger than they’d ever been.”

As an adult, I picked up on a few things about the plot that I thought could’ve used some work. Firstly, there’s a lot of travel involved in this book, which is something most commonly seen in the second book of a series. Travel is very important in fantasy or dystopian fiction, but it can also be a little boring. I certainly felt like the travelling in River Stone could’ve been condensed, or sped up.

Secondly, I found it awfully convenient how easy it was for Pandora and her friends to gain the Mountain People’s trust. Things seemed quite….easy for the team. They’re trained in both information and combat, and they’re given pretty much everything they need to succeed in their mission. It seemed a little unrealistic.

But, I’m an adult. Whilst I certainly think teenagers are at risk of getting bored of the travelling, I don’t think Pandora’s quick connection with the Mountain People will deter young readers.

River Stone entertained and intrigued me enough to want to read the sequel. The premise is refreshingly unique, and whilst the plot is a little slow at times, and the pacing lagging, I think teen readers will be enthralled by the story. I recommend this for readers aged 11-15.

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

River Stone
Rachel Hennessy
May 2019
Midnight Sun Publishing

Snow Like Ashes (Snow Like Ashes #1) by Sara Raasch

A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

I’m fast becoming a sucker for a YA dystopian series with a fantastic cover. Perhaps I’ve read too many, or perhaps I love YA dystopian novels because they’re always so unique and interesting and they are can’t-put-it-down kind of books. I actually have to stop myself from reading more YA dystopias so this blog can remain a book review blog where I review different genres of books.

Snow like Ashes is the first novel in a new series by Sara Raasch where different societies are separated by seasons. Not districts. Not class levels. Seasons, like winter, autumn, spring and summer. And it’s very refreshing. And I love that our main character is from Winter. It reminds me of Frozen, and it also reminds me of many glorious fantasy novels where they’re fighting winter or they have to travel through horrific cold conditions to complete their task/mission.

The main character, Meira, is fantastic. She’s confident, daring, bold and she knows what she wants. This isn’t exactly unique in YA fiction, because I’m reading more and more novels where writers are finally giving their female lead character a bit more backbone. There aren’t many Bella Swan’s in YA dystopian fiction, thankfully. Meira also knows how to handle a really shite situation where she’s been betrayed. There’s a particular scene where her love interest and father figure betray her (quite horribly) and she acts accordingly. She knows how to get what she wants and she doesn’t give second chances.

I’m looking forward to reading Ice like Fire (the second in the series) because there were romantic links between Meira and Mather and also Meira and Theron, and these remain unresolved at the end of the novel. This leaves it open to be further explored in the second novel. Also, Meira’s magic powers and her link to the kingdom in Winter is also expected to be developed further in Ice like Fire.

Despite the fact that it took me a good 50 pages to fully understand the premise of the story, and also to understand which character is which (I got confused with all the names in the first few chapters), I do think this book is wonderful.

Cheers to Snow like Ashes:

My Score: 9/10

Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff

Here’s what Sam knows: There was a party. There was a fight. The next morning, his best friend, Hayden, was dead. And all he left Sam was a playlist of songs, and a suicide note: For Sam—listen and you’ll understand.

As he listens to song after song, Sam tries to face up to what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it’s only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him that he will finally be able to piece together his best friend’s story. And maybe have a chance to change his own.

I think this is the first YA novel I’ve read in a long time where the main character is male – it was refreshing. Sam is confused and hurt at the beginning of the novel. His best friend is dead, and as the novel progresses and he meets people who knew Hayden, he realises that perhaps he didn’t know his best friend as well as he thought he did.

This book is flawed, but it does build suspense well and it does intrigue the reader to want to keep reading. Sam knows more about the night before Hayden died than he tells us, so we keep reading because we too want to know why Hayden killed himself.

The songs in this book were kind of irrelevant. The playlist was supposed to help Sam understand why Hayden killed himself. But he listened to them, pondered the lyrics, and then moved on. So, you could’ve taken the songs and the playlist out of the entire story and the novel would’ve been fine, which is not a good thing.

I don’t think the playlist really helped Sam at all – the characters did. Their interactions with Hayden and their social experiences with Sam helped him understand it all and attempt to move on. That being said, the characters in this novel seemed like cardboard cut outs. Sure, I kept reading because I was curious, but I was not reading because I sympathised for the characters. I didn’t really feel anything for them, to be honest. Sam told us all about his feelings and his thoughts and his doubts, and I think that this can stop the reader from actually caring for him.

The character’s motivations seemed impulsive and without authenticity. I think that the author was so determined to construct a mystery around Hayden’s death and the three bullies that she forgot to construct a more three dimensional protagonist.

My Score: 5/10
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