Excerpt: Letters to Davey - Apologise

Davey,

Why do people drink and drive? When they know it's so dangerous. I don't get it.

And you didn't look like you got it when you smiled up at me from the road, your beautiful blood mingling with your scruffy hair I always pretended to hate. And I thought my heart would burst. I wanted you to get up and laugh. I wanted to be able to tell you I loved you again.

Why us? We were so happy. And I love you so much. Why is it always the happy ones?

It's the happy ones who have their lives fucked up.

The man apologised, you know. Not that it made any difference. It's funny how our parents make such a fuss of us saying that stupid, weak word when we're kids. They tell us that everything will be ok if we say it. But after that bastard mowed you down, after he said 'sorry', did you get up?
no

I just keep thinking that if you hadn't turned to tell me you loved me...

You died because you loved me.

Fuck, Davey.

Review: Junk/Smack by Melvin Burgess (AC)

Title: Junk (also published as Smack)
Author: Melvin Burgess
Publisher: Harper Teen
Awards: Guardian Fiction Award, Carnegie Medal (1996)

Adult Content: heavy and explicit drug use, sex, discussion of prostitution
Keywords: teenagers, life, drugs, responsibility
Series: n/a
Amazon Synopsis:

Tar and Gemma are in love. Tar has reasons for running away from home that run deep and sour, whereas Gemma, with her middle-class roots firmly on show, has a deep-rooted lust for adventure. Together they explore the dark world of the streets, moving quickly on from the first hit of heroin that takes them towards bliss, to the next hit that ultimately leads to despair.

My Thoughts:

Subject/Originality:  Nowadays, books about the real-life problems facing teenagers aren't uncommon. But you have to take this book in its context - when it was published, it was the first of its kind, innovative and daring and controversial. It's hard-hitting, doesn't shy away from telling things like they are. And I think it's a very good book from that angle.

Subject/Originality: *****

 
Storyline: This got really tedious. But, having said that, it was making a point. Gemma and Tar got on drugs, got off them, on, off, on, off. That's basically the whole storyline right there for you. But Burgess shows us through that repetition of drug use how difficult it is to not only get off drugs, but to stay off them. And so I think that, although it's not a fantastic storyline, there's a reason for it being so, and as a technique, it works.

Storyline: ***


Characters: This book is very interesting from a characters angle, as well. I didn't like any of them. But I don't think I was meant to, so again it's a technique. Gemma starts off selfish, while Tar is nice and kind and sweet - and vulnerable. And then they swap over about halfway through the book. Again, Burgess uses the characters to his advantage and manipulates the reader into liking or not liking them, but it makes heavy reading if you actually don't like any of the characters!

Characters: ***


Writing Style: Most of the characters in Junk/Smack chip in with a bit of narration, although it's mainly Gemma and Tar who share it. I liked the way you get lots of different viewpoints from this, but it also stopped me from really getting into any one character's story. Also, I felt all the narrating voices' styles were quite similar. I always think, from a writer's point of view, that a multi-viewpoint story gives you a great chance to explore different writing styles for each character, but Burgess hasn't done this here, which, I think, is a wasted opportunity.

Writing Style: ***
 

Enjoyability: I enjoyed Junk/Smack, despite what I've said about it not being great from all the other angles. I read it very quickly - in about a day and a half - and I enjoyed every page. Some bits of it were more heavy-going than others - because of the content and the things they were discussing - but I really did enjoy it. It engaged me.

Enjoyability: ****


Summary: This is an okay book, from most angles. Characters, meh; writing style, okay; storyline, not much - but I enjoyed it. It's not an easy read, because it deals with difficult content and situations, but it is both an enjoyable one and an important one. I definitely think that all teenagers, young adults and even older adults should read Junk/Smack, because of the content it deals with. Kids, if you want to go on drugs, this book'll put you right off. So yes, it's important, for understanding the druggie underworld of our lives, and to know to steer well away from it.

Word Rating: a good-good book


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Review: Feed by Mira Grant (AC)

Title: Feed
Author: Mira Grant
Publisher: Orbit
Adult Content: mid-gore, sustained swearing
Keywords: zombies, apocalypse, blogging, news, truth, action, dystopia
Series: Newsflesh #1
Goodreads Synopsis:

In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as "Marburg Amberlee"—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks.

It raised the dead.

Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed "The Rising," and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.

Set twenty years after the Rising, the Newsflesh trilogy follows a team of bloggers, led by Georgia and Shaun Mason, as they search for the brutal truths behind the infection. Danger, deceit, and betrayal lurk around every corner, as does the hardest question of them all:

When will you rise?

My Thoughts:

Subject: Well, I don't normally do zombies. Er, at all. Ever, really. I'm not particularly squeamish, but still...  So anyway, just looking at this cover would usually have been enough to polish me off, and you can forget about going so far as to actually read the thing. But I was very pleasantly surprised. This is more of a novel about news, blogging and the truth than zombies. It's about how society continues, even when the dead don't stay dead. Which is something I'd never considered before. So, while this isn't the kind of book I'd usually go for, I was certainly excited to read it, and it definitely fulfilled my expectations!

Subject: ****


Storyline: Feed is halfway between an action novel, a mystery, and goodness only knows what else. You can always tell a good storyline, I think, when you don't notice it. I felt I was completely safe in Mira Grant's hands, and I never stopped to think 'I wonder where she's going with this', or even 'what'll happen next', because I was too busy being in the moment, legging it from zombies or trying to work out just who was the bad guy. It's not a complicated storyline, but this book isn't about the storyline. It's about people, and how they cope with zombies. So it's all good =]

Storyline: ****


Characters: Here's where it all gets much more interesting (although it's been pretty good so far already). The characterisation in this novel should be a role-model for all aspiring authors. I honestly couldn't have asked for better. You can just tell that Grant has thought about her characters really carefully, but, like the storyline, I never stopped to think about them as characters. They were real people. And they were my friends. And I feel pretty bereft now I've finished the book and they've left me behind...  Newflesh #2, here I come!

Characters: *****


Writing Style: Georgia Mason narrates Feed, and I couldn't have asked for a better narrator. She's fun and witty and full of dry sarcasm. There are some serious laugh-out-loud moments (as well as some sob-out-loud ones - have a hanky ready!). Grant really got inside the head of Georgia. Definitely role-model for the witty, sarcastic type of narration and writing style! I love it =]

Writing Style: *****


Enjoyability: If you haven't worked it out for yourself already, then here's what I thought: I loved it. I fell in love with absolutely everything about it - Grant's meticulously planned and detailed world, her wonderfully human characters, the sarcastic way she writes - just everything. If it tells you anything, this book has gone to the top of my 'favourites' list. And that's a pretty long list.

Enjoyability: ***** (I would give it another, but that would be cheating)

Summary: A well-written, well-thought-out book by a great author about great characters. What more could you ask for? One of the best books I've read this year.

Word Rating: a good-good book


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Review: Plague Child by Peter Ransley (AC)

Title: Plague Child
Author: Peter Ransley
Publisher: Harper Collins
Adult Content: swearing, crude jokes, innuendos, sexual insults
Keywords: English civil war, plague, adventure, honour, family
Series: first in the Tom Neave trilogy
Author's Synopsis: 

On a cloudy September evening in 1625, plague cart driver, Matthew Neave, is sent to pick up the corpse of a baby. As he journeys to the plague pit, he hears a cry and realises that the baby is still alive.

From award-winning screenwriter Peter Ransley comes Plague Child, the first in a captivating trilogy set against the backdrop of the English civil war. Spanning three decades in the life of his young fictional hero, Tom Neave, the story weaves mystery and adventure into a rich tapestry of real historical events and people.

This dramatic and involving novel is above all, the coming of age story of Tom Neave, and the sowing of the first seeds of a democratic government for Great Britain.

My Thoughts:

Subject: I don't know much about the plague or the English civil war, so it was nice to find out a little through this novel. However, it only really touched in these subjects, preferring to follow the adventure of Tom Neave, which was a little disappointing. I think the title is a little misleading, as it certainly made me think that the novel would be all about the plague. So it's a little misleading and disappointing on the subject front, but it didn't particularly bother me.

Subject: ***


Storyline: This book didn't really have a storyline, so I'm not sure if there's really very much I can say about it. It took for ever to begin, and when it finally did, it was mainly just Tom running around the country trying to find out the secret of his heritage. Enjoyable. Adventurous. But not particularly great as a storyline. That said, it certainly kept up the suspense for a long time, and I really wanted to know what had actually happened and who Tom's father was. So, like the subject, it's kind of okay.

Storyline: **


Characters: I'm starting to sound like a stuck record now. Because I'm about to say 'nothing special'. Again. That kind of epitomises the whole book. Sure, the characters were okay. But I didn't really care about them. Tom irritated me. He's the typical historical novel hero who's highly chivalrous and honourable amongst a world of cut-throat rogues. Hm. Not particularly original, I feel. Another shame.

Characters: **


Writing Style: I'm feeling very un-original now. Another 'nothing special'. It wasn't written badly. But it wasn't written in a way that's particularly memorable or anything. I think that Ransley (who is in fact mainly a screenwriter) sometimes forgot that he was writing a novel, and wrote it more like a film. So, what I mean is, he forgot to stick in little unimportant things like what his character is actually feeling. Can you hear the sarcasm in that last sentence? I thought so.

Writing Style: **


Enjoyability: Now, this is where it picks up. It wasn't a particularly good novel, but I enjoyed it. It was very slow to begin with, but once it sorted itself out, I liked it. Nothing great, maybe, but an enjoyable read.

Enjoyability: ***


Summary: An okay book. Pretty forgettable. Nothing really special, but a fun read.

Word Rating: a good-bad book

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Review: The Opposite of Amber (AC) by Gillian Philip

They found the fifth girl right after the snow melted...

Title: The Opposite of Amber
Author: Gillian Philip
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Star Rating: ****
Word Rating: a good-good book
Keywords: sisters, murder, love, mystery, life
Adult Content: adult subject and sex scenes

Ruby has always been with Jinn, as sisters and best friends. Jinn is bright and beautiful, and doing everything she can to care for Ruby. Ruby is quiet and pensive, her sister an essential part of her life. But then Nathan Baird turns up, Nathan who disappeared mysteriously, Nathan who was in prison, Nathan who charms and loves Jinn. Jinn changes. She has someone else now. Ruby must find a new life. And in the midst of it all, someone is prowling the streets, watching them...

I really loved this book. It was laugh-out-loud funny and sob-out-loud sad, and had everything in between. Ruby, the narrator, is endearing and funny and easy to relate to - I honestly felt like she was my best friend and I'd known her for years. I read 'The Opposite of Amber' in one day flat because I was so involved in what Ruby was showing me. This is a true story of growing up and finding one's place in the world, and it deals with today's issues in a deft and confident way, often finding humour in the most unlikely places. Unlike what the title may suggest, I think that 'The Opposite of Amber' is a real gem, and a must-read for everyone.