Readathon Day 3

So last night I finished Fangirl - read my review here: Literary Loves: Fangirl (started a proper book blog after I'd already signed up to YALC Readathon with this one).

I've also managed to finish listening to the audiobook version of Tinder by Sally Gardner - a review will be going up at some point in the next 24 hours.

I'm picking up a copy of Phil Earle's Heroic tomorrow, so tonight I will either be listening to She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick or reading a Dr Who short story by one of the other YALC authors, as several of them appear in this lovely anthology:

I was excited to see that there's a 'Regenerating the Doctor' talk as part of YALC, and will definitely be after tickets for that - sadly Malorie isn't on the panel (why, Malorie, why?!) This book is also going to be my book-signing secret weapon: 5 author signatures on one book = more room in my book bag for more new books! Genius!

Readathon Day 2

Just a quick update - literally just finish Fangirl! Loved it. Will write a proper review tomorrow because, right now, I'm off to Bedfordshire. Nighty night x

YALC Readathon: Day 1

With just 18 days, 13 hours and 43 minutes until the UK's first ever Young Adult Lit Con, I am on a MISSION to read books by as many of the author's attending before the big weekend.

So far I've managed 11 books by attending authors, but this week I'm making a concerted effort to reduce my 'to read' list! 

I'm nearly half-way through Fangirl by my new favourite lady, Ms Rainbow Rowell, and on Chapter 22 (of 34) of Sally Gardner's magical, creepy, Hans-Christian-Anderson-inspired Tinder.

I like this readathon... I feel like I'm doing important preparatory work now, and not just skiving off, reading a book!

YALC Readathon is being hosted by 4 prolific bloggers, who are posting special something's each day of the challenge:

Jess at Jess Hearts Books, who today had a guest post from one of the YALC organisers, Katerine Woodfine;

Carly at Writing From The Tub, who featured a guest post by one of the authors, Beth Reekles;

Vicky at Books, Biscuits, and Tea had a guest post from Marcus Sedgwick, another of the authors that will be appearing;

And Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies wrote a really interesting and exciting post about her top five authors attending YALC. This last post may have altered my highlighted and annotated copy of the YALC schedule, as she's really rated a couple of writers in there that I, at present, know little to nothing about.

Needless to say, I've been reading plenty of authors' twitter-feeds, and am getting well and truly in the mood for what is going to be an AMAZING weekend! Hopefully, I'll be able to get 3, maybe 4 book reviews up this Readathon week - wish me luck!

On that note, I have started a separate blog for bookish things: http://literary-loves.blogspot.co.uk (there's also links to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Goodreads on the site... Go look!) This is basically my bid to become a professional reader, in readiness for my future career as a highly influential bookseller! I'd really appreciate it if you could read some of the posts, chip in on the comments, follow on other social media and/or share with your friends. Some of you already have, and for that I am very grateful.

I must go now and READ, READ, READ!

YALC Readathon

With just 30 days to go, I am in full reading-flow getting prepared for the UK's first ever Young Adult Literature Convention, happening at Earl's Court this July. You can check out some reviews of books by authors that will be appearing in my previous blog posts.

Until the schedule for the weekend was published yesterday, I had also been doing a fair bit of trawling the internet, desperately looking for things with YALC hashtag to get glimmers of information about what might be happening. I may also have badgered some authors on Twitter to find out what they would be up to, but they were quite accommodating!  One thing that I did come across, was this lovely blog by Jessica - Jess Hearts Books. Along with some other bloggers, she is running the #YALCReadathon, which will take place between the 23rd-29th June 2014.

I will definitely be doing this. I'm not sure where I'll be up to by then, but my to-read list is currently:

• She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick
• Tinder by Sally Gardner
• Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon
• Undone by Cat Clarke
• Trouble by Non Pratt
• Hello Darkness by Anthony McGowan
• Geek Girl by Holly Smale

And at the moment, I'm reading Geekhood:Close Encounters of the Girl Kind by Andy Robb and How I live Now by Meg Rosoff. Phew!

So expect more book reviews soon... lots of books!

Also, check out some awesome reviews by students in my Carnegie Award shadowing group here.

Review: Say Her Name by James Dawson

Do you remember those Point Horror books from when you were at school? James Dawson does, and he has a whole part of his website dedicated to them, so I'm going to steal his format for reviewing his latest fright-fest inspired by the mythology of Bloody Mary.

What's it all about?

A group of seven teenagers are hanging out on a stormy Halloween night, in the grounds of Piper's Hall School for Young Ladies, telling ghost stories. Determined to up the scare stakes, Sadie dares the others to summon the ghost of Bloody Mary by saying her name five times in front of a candlelit mirror at midnight. Three of the gang take up the challenge: Bobbie, the slightly nerdy protagonist; Bobbie's best friend, the gorgeous and wise-cracking New Yorker, Naya; and Caine, a boy from the local comp, who's snuck into the posh boarding school with his friend, Mark. 

It's all a bit of a laugh, until the next day when the gang reunite in town. In the graveyard. In a shady, abandoned bit that no one visits, obviously. Suddenly, Naya starts having a horrendous nosebleed, quickly followed by Bobbie and Caine. The others think this is a carefully orchestrated stunt to freak them all out after last night's shenanigans, but the trio claim otherwise.

Creepy messages?

You bet! After a hair-raising experience in the shower, Bobbie receives a message written on the steamed up bathroom mirror: "FIVE DAYS". Naya receives the same message, written in a scratchy hand, on her planner. Bobbie and Caine also start to have the same hot and heavy, but decidedly creepy dreams - is Mary trying to show them something? 

The Girl

Bobbie (Roberta Rowe) is the daughter of an actress somewhat past her heyday and an anonymous sperm donor, affectionately referred to as Spermy!  Consequently, with her mother's theatre rehearsal and touring commitments, Bobbie has to board at Piper's and often stays on during the holidays. Dawson describes her as "happy to fade into the wallpaper", the opposite of her drama queen mother, but she has a quiet confidence the grows as the story progresses and she has to act with more urgency.

The love interest

Caine. He's the "cuter" of the two bit-of-rough boys from the local high school, mixed-race, and comes with an interesting family history: "It's just families, ain't it? They're all messed up. My mum left my dad for my uncle and then my dad tried to stab 'em both". Caine is originally from Croyden, by the way. Ah, but he's not all that he first appears to be, and beneath the hoodie, he's a sensitive "creative" type. Perfect bit of stuff for a YA novel, and I think Dawson may have based him on a personal crush, as there were a few very appreciative descriptions of his physical appearance!

Dialogue disasters

Well, there weren't any, to be honest. This is one fast-paced, frightner, and the dialogue really helps shape the characters and gets the action going. What I did love about the dialogue were the little references to other media texts - I spotted at least 3 references to Clueless in there! 

That's way harsh, Tai.

Body count
4 definitely, but more implied...

Did the best friend do it?
No, although there were times where I thought she could be involved - there were physical similarities between her and the perp.

Some mild peril?
You will want to remove all mirrors from your house. Also, do not read this book in the bath (lesson learned the hard way). You will read certain bits of this book, and only when you get to the end of them, will you realise that you stopped breathing!

Is it any good?

YES YES YES! Having grown up reading Point Horrors, this is so much better - genuinely chilling, but with a solid teen back story. I'd love to see this made into a movie - it had me desperate to re-watch classics such as Heathers and The Craft! Needless to say, I will be picking up copies of Dawson's other novels, Hollow Pike and Cruel Summer, and cannot wait to see what he'll be doing at YALC. Now, go read this book... Mary would like it if you did! 

Review: Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

This is an intriguing story, revealed in the form of a hidden notebook found in the psychiatric wing of a young offenders institute. It has been written by Emily 'Krazy' Koll, the daughter of a notorious London gangster, who has been incarcerated for an act of violent revenge. Clue #1 "Don't believe everything you read".  Quite what that act is is not revealed until the very end of the novel, and believe me, you will turn those pages quickly to find out!

However, be warned - an unhinged 17 year old girl is definitely not a reliable narrator - how much of what Emily writes is true? She's been living a double life and I think this has definitely taken it's toll on her and how she remembers the events that are unfolded in the pages of her notebook. Clue #2 who's writing in the notebook?

Emily knows nothing of her dad's criminal activities, until he murders the policeman leading an investigation on him, and the policeman's daughter - Juliet Shaw - stabs Emily's father in self defence.  Then, her whole world falls apart: has her entire life been a lie? What happened to her mother? Bent on revenge, Emily sets out to unpick Juliet's 'perfect' life, one thread at a time until there is nothing left. Clue #3 pay attention to things that go missing.

I have a theory about what really happens in this story, but for now, I'm going to keep that to myself... If you read this book, then we can talk. This was an engrossing read, and Byrne expertly keeps you guessing right up until the end (and beyond!)

"You want to know what happened, why I did it. That's why you're reading this, right?" 

'Yes!' I screamed in my head, 'YES!'. I'm hoping that when Tanya Byrne is at YALC I'll be able to try out my theory on her and get some answers! In the meantime, you should totally read this book!

#ThisBook

The Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction winner will be announced tomorrow. Ahead of that, they have launched #ThisBook – an exciting social media campaign to find the novels written by women that have most impacted the nation.

To support the launch, a diverse selection of inspiring women, including Jennifer Saunders, Dawn O’Porter, Susanna Reid and Martha Lane Fox, have come together to encourage book lovers across the nation to nominate the novel, written by a woman, which has had the biggest impact on their lives.

My chosen #ThisBook is Oryx and Crake by the awesome Margaret Atwood. I first read it when it came out over 10 years ago, but it's one of those books that stays with you. Probably because it's terrifying. In a 'this is totally the way things are headed' kind of way. In fact, Atwood pulled the following developments directly from the headlines of our newspapers, magazines and websites.

The story is told by Snowman, who is mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and wondering what happened to his once close friend Crake and where the world went wrong: genetically altered animals, the elimination of the middle class, ecological disaster, the commodification of just about everything, and humanity's extinction. You can read an except here.

There are two more books in the series, The Year of The Flood, and MaddAddam, which was published last summer.

Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

It's 1986 and two awkward teenagers fall in love on the school bus. It's not love at first sight - far from it - but an act of kindness on behalf of Park, a half-Korean kid who doesn't conform to his father's ideals of masculinity, allows the pair to discover some common ground. Eleanor, a large girl with unruly red curls and dreadful clothes isn't used to kindness: she's an easy target for bullies, and

for her abusive step-father.


Through a shared passion for music and Alan Moore's The Watchmen, Eleanor and Park grow closer and closer, in spite of the pressures exerted on them by their peers and their families (and these people's views on what is 'normal' and acceptable). Rowell uses her cast of characters to explore gender roles, identity and race, and what it means to be a family. There's a really good balance between her portrayal of the positive experiences of teenagers - the excitement of first love, making mix-tapes etc - and the heartbreakingly negative ones - domestic violence, child abuse, bullying.


This could have been a really depressing read, but fortunately, once our pair finally admit and accept their attraction to each other, they become a force to be reckoned with. That said, if you're thinking of picking this book up and getting the 'happily ever after' ending, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. This isn't a childish love story, it's a book that shows the damage that some people can inflict on others, and how they in turn can survive it. At times the drama can seem a little OTT and melodramatic, but there's something about it that still strikes a chord, and I definitely had a lump in my throat reading several emotional scenes.

Fave bit of dialogue:
"I love you," he said.
She looked up at him, her eyes shiny and black, then looked away. "I know," she said.
...

“You know?" he repeated. She smiled, so he kissed her. "You're not the Han Solo in this relationship, you know."
"I'm totally the Han Solo," she whispered. It was good to hear her. It was good to remember it was Eleanor under all this new flesh.
"Well, I'm not the Princess Leia," he said.
"Don't get so hung up on gender roles," Eleanor said.”
...

“You can be Han Solo," he said, kissing her throat. "And I'll be Boba Fett. I'll cross the sky for you.”


Rowell may not be hung up on gender roles, but if I'm honest, this is a book for the girls. There's plenty of pop culture references in there that would appeal to both 'typical' males and females, but I'm not sure if boys would really get/be interested in the popular girls' bitching and bullying of Eleanor, Eleanor's hang ups with her appearance or her relationships with her mother and her younger siblings. Also, this is a YA novel that means just that: young ADULT - there is plenty of swearing, abusive and threatening notes of a sexual nature, references to drug and alcohol abuse, and teenage pregnancy. None of this is done gratuitously, but I would definitely suggest that this is a 14+ book.