Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller

04:29 Unknown 0 Comments

Highgate, London, November 1985

This morning I found a black and white photograph of my father at the back of the bureau drawer. He didn’t look like a liar. My mother, Ute, had removed the other pictures of him from the albums she kept on the bottom shelf of the bookcase, and shuffled around all the remaining family and baby snapshots to fill the gaps. The frame picture of their wedding, which used to sit on the mantelpiece, had gone too. 

On the back of the photograph, Ut had written “James und seine Busenfeunde mit Oliver, 1976” in her steady handwriting. It was the last picture that had been taken of my father. He look shockingly young and healthy, his face as smooth and white as a river pebble. He would have been twenty-six, nine years older than I am today. 



Let me preface everything I am about to write by saying that this book filled me with so many emotions. Fuller’s writing style is one that I will continue to return to from now on because this novel has truly just swept me off of my feet and knocked me for six. There is something very fairytale-esque about this novel in it’s setting and the characters, but there is an obvious juxtaposition with the complete sadism with which Fuller treats them. 

The novel follows our protagonist Peggy in two different times of her life. When we first meet her she is seventeen and at home in London with her mother and brother, seemingly trying to readjust. We learn this through her reminiscence of when she was 8 years old and spending time with her father. Her father, James, is a survivalist or a “retreater” and is part of a group of men who all believe that the world is going to end and that they need to take precautions. He stockpiles in their cellar and makes sure that Peggy can pack everything she needs, run downstairs and set it all up in the space of little under 10 minutes. When her mother goes to Germany to continue her career as a concert pianist, James decides that Peggy doesn’t need to go to school and they start lessons of survival in their garden; how to make a fire, skin squirrels and what berries and mushrooms were safe to eat. But after an argument with a friend, James decides this is no longer a safe place. He makes Peggy pack her things and they head off to find die Hütte. This is something that Peggy has been told about by her father to be some magical place with a piano and a river with fish you can just lean in and grab, yet it is far less than that. It is ramshackle, dilapidated and nothing that either of them were expecting. They begin to fix it up and it becomes more like home but one morning James comes back and tells her that there is nothing left in the world. There is no one else. Her life is slowly reduced to working to keep them alive, a makeshift piano that makes no noise, and the feeling in the back of her mind that they aren’t alone. 

Peggy is an incredible character; mostly because she is flawed. Throughout we see her becoming impatient and as she grows up she tries to become more independent. Her independence isn’t so much of a flaw in itself but it is the fact that she can’t fully destroy the tether linking her to her father. She allows him to instruct her on what to do, which as an eight year old seemed to be a game but at nearly seventeen it becomes more of a challenge. What we see Peggy do is start to challenge her father’s authority and she hides things from him that she otherwise wouldn’t have done. I don’t think she wants to necessarily but she just never finds the right time to tell him. 

James’ character is a lot like this through the whole of the novel. He really does believe that this is best for them and frequently becomes angry when things don’t go according to plan. He slowly begins to lose a grip on his sanity throughout and I love the way that Fuller shows this. He becomes obsessive over certain things, even if they’re not likely to work. The first real example of this is the creation of the piano. Even though he can’t make it make a sound he creates a working keyboard out of the wood of their dining room table. Slowly these things get more and more drastic like trying to move the river closer to die Hütte to try and have a closer source of water. Eventually however his real obsession is to change Peggy into his wife, Ute, who he believes to be dead. It’s quite sad to watch his deterioration throughout as we’re never really sure of his next move, especially when he is responsible for looking after Peggy.

One of the strangest things throughout the novel is the idea that they might not be alone. We as readers know that the world has not all gone, because of the changes in time frame, but we do not know if they are alone in this clearing or not. In the corner of the hut behind the stove is written the name Reuben. Peggy starts to feel observed after noticing this name and Reuben becomes more and more of a presence in her life. I don’t want to linger on his character for too long for fear I may spoil the story for some, but his presence is something of a calm away from the storm that is Peggy’s father. 

The fairytale aspect of this for me comes in two parts. The first is the setting of this novel. It’s in this clearing in the woods in what I imagine to be like a pretty beaten up shed. The idea of dense forest to hide something or someone away is a pretty big trope in classical fairytales; think of sleeping beauty. Yet I think the biggest link to the fairytale is the fact that Peggy demands that that is not her name to her father and wants to be called ‘Punzel; a shortened form of Rapunzel. Cue thoughts about the Disney film Tangled and Rapunzel being locked away in a tower in the forest. 

I think one of the best things that Fuller does is make everything feel incredibly claustrophobic, even though it’s outside. The clearing is never described in terms of its size but it is surrounded by tall trees that you can’t see through, and on three sides there are either mountains or hills. On the fourth side, is the river. After a traumatic experience crossing the river the first time, Peggy states that she will never go near the water again. And she doesn’t. This is really the only way that she can escape from her father, and her fear of it means that she is forced to stay. Even climbing to the highest point on top of the mountain ridge, there is no seeing over the furthest hill and there is no sign of life. The whole setting becomes enclosed and it becomes even smaller still when die Hütte is explored. It’s got a stove and some shelving, a single bed, a table and some stools, and a case with some tools in it. Minimalistic but really all that fits inside. When autumn arrives they even line the walls with logs that they can use for firewood which further brings the walls in and this increases the tension. Peggy’s hide out in the trees even becomes smaller as she grows. 

I think that the juxtaposition in time works. We get to see her as a seventeen year old and her as an eight year old both trying to establish themselves in their surroundings. Nothing of what they see is really theres and everything is different to their expectations. I love that there’s this mirrored narrative of really learning more about your surroundings, whilst for Peggy it’s learning about the house and her new brother, but for 'Punzel it’s all about the forest. But this also shows Peggy as flawed without a real knowledge of anything that’s going on around her which really makes you feel for her as a character. I really wanted to just scoop her up and lift her out of the forest to her home in London because the situation does at times become incredibly volatile. 

This isn’t a book for the faint of heart. There are times in this where I definitely felt a lot of anger and a lot of sadness but also a lot of anxiety. The setting and the characters altogether really make this such a success. I think that Fuller really captures this imaginative eight year old growing up into a young woman, out of touch with everything she once knew, before being thrown back into society. 

Total pages - 382
Total read time - untimed
Rating /10 - 7.5
Recommend - Yes 

0 comments :

Satin Island - Tom McCarthy

02:12 Unknown 0 Comments

"1.1 Turin is where the famous shroud is from, the one showing Christ’s body spin after crucifixion: hands folded over genitals, eyes closed, head crowned with thorns. The image isn’t really visible on the bare linen. It only emerged in the late nineteenth century, when some amateur photographer looked at the negative of a shot he’d taken of the thing, and saw the figure - pale and faded, but there nonetheless. Only in the negative: the negative became a positive, which means that the shroud itself was, in effect, a negative already. A few decades later, when the shroud was radiocarbon dated, it turned out to come from no later than the mid-thirteenth century; but this didn’t trouble the believers. Things like that never do."



McCarthy isn’t an author I’d ever heard of but this novel was shortlisted for the ManBooker prize this year. It didn’t win but it was really the only one on the list that stood out to me. It’s an interesting and experimental way of writing that McCarthy uses; 14 chapters broken down into short parts. It makes it really easy to read but not necessary all linking up to one another. I really enjoyed his writing style and the ambitious nature of what he was trying to capture. 

The story follows our protagonist U, a corporate anthropologist, as he is set the task of writing The Great Report to sum up our culture. Throughout he procrastinates with visits to his lover’s home, and researching a parachutists death and an oil spill. He seems to think that all of these things will link up to decode what our culture really is and throughout we get little insights into how it possibly could all link up. But then things all appear to change for U and he’s forced to reconsider what he thought to be true. The whole novel really made me think about how I view culture. It can be said to be related to the physical objects that we’ve got to show for what we’ve created, yet it also can be shown through our patterns of behaviour. All of the way through this novel, U battles with his thoughts surrounding the two. 

I don’t think we ever come to a definite conclusion at the end of the novel. U’s procrastinating takes a turn when he wants to really understand what happened to his lover, Madison, when she visited Turin’s international airport. He seems more concerned about delving into her past than focussing on his paper, and it is even with her that this idea of Satin Island appears. He’s laid in bed with her after intercourse and he falls asleep, beginning to dream about flying in a helicopter around an island, vibrant in colour and life, and this inspires him in what he wants to do for his report. Yet he never wants to work on it. Or he doesn’t have the drive. 

McCarthy’s writing style seems to leave room for reader interpretation. I don’t think that we’re meant to know all of the answers, which I understand might be frustrating to some readers. It’s such an interesting concept, what defines our culture, that it does requires room for discussion. I personally love the essay style, with these unanswered questions. I think this was what made it so enjoyable. The novel is written in this essay style, with a lot of interesting facts given not only about the surroundings and the characters, but about some things that don’t really seem important, for example the opening of the novel talking about the shroud. The essay style also helps with the actual language used throughout. The number of times I had to use my kindle’s dictionary function whilst reading this was incredible to me because not only was I reading this, very enjoyable, novel, but I was being introduced to a whole host of new words and new ideas about culture and people and the way I view things around me. 

All of the characters are really well formulated; from the people that he works with to his friend who runs the museum. I seemed to get something from every character regarding our culture, whether it be to do with how we deal with death, stressful situations, and romance. However these are not the real focus in the novel. The real focus is U’s internal struggle with his own definition of culture, but all of these additions help us develop our own image of it. I can’t think of any characters I disliked, but then again I can’t think of any that stood out to me more than others. All of the characters have a reason for existing which links them to U, and this link is mostly just as a form of distraction from the actual task at hand. Yet this is interesting in itself for this can be seen as making U both the protagonist and antagonist in his own story. He will be the cause of his own inevitable downfall; as he’s unable to focus and therefore produce what is needed of him. 

Overall I understand completely why this book was shortlisted for the ManBooker prize. It’s not only engaging and funny, but deeply intuitive and forces readers to consider their own interpretation of culture whilst seemingly attempting to manipulate it. The writing style is easy to read, with short numbered sections within chapters that mean it can be put down and picked up again when necessary; not that you should want to put it down. 

Total pages - 192
Total read time - 2 hours 55
Rating /10 - 7

Recommend - Yes 

0 comments :

The Light That Gets Lost - Natasha Carthew

07:55 Unknown 0 Comments

Behind the slatted cupboard door the young boy adjusted his eyes to the dark and pressed his face to the tickle and cuddle of familiar coats. He could hear the shouting deep down in the belly of the house, a stranger’s voice rolling thick with gravel stones, and he thought he heard his brother squeal and wished him quiet. Dad was churning up a storm, his low voice booming, steady, concentrating fear. 

The boy knew it would be over soon. The man with the menace would be gone and the drum of kitchen pots and pans would mean Mum was getting the dinner on; the one good square meal with everyone sitting table tight. The boy smelt the trace of Mum’s perfume in the oily fur of a coat she no longer wore and he petted the animal and pulled it to him. 

Even if I didn't love the book - how gorgeous is this cover?!

I’ve always said to myself that I have to be honest with my reviews, especially ARCs I receive through NetGalley. This is one of those that I have to honestly say I didn’t enjoy and had to really push myself to finish. The initial story really interested me when I found it on the website, a classic revenge story when three year old Trey sees his parents murdered in front of him through the slats of the cupboard he’s hiding in. 

We then skip forward an unmentioned number of years to Trey being sent to this camp for “troubled teens” run by what appears to be a religious cult of some kind. It’s never really said what they are which is my first real qualm with this novel. There is no real backstory to why the camps were set up in the first place for these teenagers. There is prior knowledge of the camps that Trey knows but none of this is really handed over to the reader. We are sent into this setting without really knowing what to expect, which I think is meant to put the reader on edge, but actually left me more confused than anything. The scale of the camp is also really confusing to me. There are lots of parts to the camp that Trey visits (the bunkhouse, the farm, the canteen, the farmhouse etc.) and to know where one of these is in relation to the other, especially for the end of the novel, is really important. Yet there is no map. This would be an addition I would make immediately - purely to avoid any confusion. 

Another thing I found confusing when reading was trying to remember who everyone was. You’re introduced to a lot of characters because of the camp setting and therefore it’s important for each character to have really defining characteristics. This I thought was what was really lacking. Trey is our main character so we are immediately forced to really remember him and what he’s been through in his past, yet he’s still slightly undefined. There’s lots of references to “the demon” throughout but I still have no idea after finishing the novel as to what this really meant for his character. Was it some vengeful part of his soul? Or was it his anger? I’m not sure if it’s meant to be open to reader interpretation but it is overly confusing and an almost unnecessary addition to the story without the explanation. 

Other characters I didn’t really like were Lamby and the twins John and David. They seemed undefined, especially the latter two, and I didn’t really feel much of a connection to either of them. Even when Lamby is sent to hospital half way through the novel I found myself not really caring at all. This is something that I really wanted to feel when reading this. Emotions run really high when revenge is involved, see Hamlet by Shakespeare if you don’t believe me, so I really wanted to feel either sad or angry but all I felt was disappointment. I was disappointed that Carthew also felt the need to implement a love story. Kay is probably one of the characters that I actually like; but I didn’t like her until the very end of the novel, when we actually discovered what she did to end up in the camp. This is what I wanted for all of the characters, including Trey; detailed descriptions of their past lives. Rather than talking me through what they did for work on the farm it should’ve introduced me to the characters, including Wilder, the antagonist, and then given me what they did to end up in the camp. Then we could’ve skipped through quite a lot of the novel to the last quarter or third which was honestly my favourite. 

The action sequences at the end of the novel are really my favourite part. The tension and pacing in the last four chapters is definitely better than during the rest of the novel. The beginning is slow and drawn out with the language feeling like it’s trying too hard to be poetic, but the end is less so. It’s much more of a refined segment, and this I think is owed to the more central role of the antagonist; Wilder. He’s an interesting character. There is a twist regarding him and Trey but its so sudden that it almost feels like an afterthought. The building upon this in the last four chapters though really adds depth to the characters and I love that fact. 

Overall this book took me a long time to finish. I didn’t really enjoy the first half of the book and it was a struggle to get through these. I considered not finishing it. That was how badly I felt about the first half. However, I think that it is worth pushing through if you have the time. The language and dialogue can be a bit like marmite, either you’ll love it or you’ll hate it, and the characters are a bit the same. Yet the ending, I’d say, is worth the drag. The Light That Gets Lost has a wonderful message hidden within the last chapter, which I think relates to the idea of being lost in life, love, and within yourself. 

Total pages - 320 
Total read time - Untimed
Rating /10 - 4
Recommend - Maybe if you have the time 

0 comments :

Eat Him If You Like - Jean Teulé (Translated by Emily Phillips)

09:14 Unknown 0 Comments

Alain’s thoughts wandered as he travelled along, dreaming, carefree, and revelling happily in his surroundings. His horse’s mane rose and fell in gentle waves as they trotted along. Vine-covered slopes bordered the dusty, well-worn track, and the sun was striving to sweeten and swell the grapes. The oppressive heat had even silenced the cicadas. Alain’s drooped and he began to daydream. 

He opened his eyes again and saw a stream of traders, labourers and artisans ahead of him on the dirt track. They resembled a flock of geese as they converged on the fair, some on out, and others riding donkeys, or driving carts. Alain squeezed past on the right, overtaking two farmers from Mainzac.



Warning! This book is not for the faint hearted! In fact, I didn’t think that I was faint of heart until I read this novella and discovered how squeamish it made me. It’s full of blood and gore, detailed descriptions and is definitely not a book for everyone.

So this book is what I’d describe as creative non fiction. It’s based around facts that we have surrounding the death of Alain de Monéys in Hautefaye, France. It is during 1870 and the height of the Franco-Prussian war. Napoleon III had been captured by the enemy yet all of rural France remained faithful to their Emperor. Alain de Monéys was tasked with explaining that the war was not going well for the French. In an altercation and misunderstanding, Alain de Monéys was thought to have said “down with the French”. This is what started off a revolt and a mob mentality in the people of Hautefaye. The parish priest attempts to distract the mob with drink but all in vain, for they continue to beat him. They even try and get the sympathy of the mayor to pardon the innocent Monéys, yet unable to show his leadership against the mob was told to have said “eat him if you like.” So they did. 

This novella is not for the faint hearted, I repeat. The descriptions of the physical torture sustained by Alain de Monéys are very vivid and do not lack in their clarity. He is not only beaten, but he sustains some very painful injuries. The first is that of having horseshoes nailed to his feet, and the toes chopped off from his right foot. Definitely not a scene for the squeamish reader. Following this he is defecated and urinated on, as well as being forced to watch the love of his life defiled before him; so mainly emotional as opposed to physical trauma. Then the very worst becomes of him. The frenchmen attempt to quarter him by pulling at his limbs, however Monéys is able to escape. He’s later caught and the only option they see fit is to roast him alive. 

The more I think about this novella the more exciting it becomes. What we are faced with here is basic fact about a place and a time, and then people’s names. We don’t have access to all of this dialogue and complete description of what exactly it was that happened to him. And in what order. So for Teulé to have created this novella which intertwines fact and fiction, which is in no way easy let me tell you, we get a better understanding of what happened during this time. It’s so descriptive that sometimes it feels as if it should be a piece of fiction from the imagination of a very dark author, yet it’s based in fact, which in itself is terrifying. As you read, it becomes very psychological as you debate as to whether or not what’s being written is fact or fictitious, and also wondering how people would be driven to such an extreme. 


Total pages - 144
Total read time - 1 hour 15
Rating /10 - 7

Recommend - Yes for a gruesome read

0 comments :

Fireworks - Kelly Bishop

14:48 Unknown 0 Comments

I've not posted here in a long time; which is actually my fault. I've moved to University, started my Creative Writing and Media course (which I'm loving) and on Sunday I turned 20. I feel old. I really do. But I thought that I should probably give you something, seeing as I'm not really up to date with all my reading at the moment. 

I'm currently taking a few creative writing modules, one of my favourites being Writing Poetry. We were asked to take a minority group and write a poem based on their lives or how we perceive them. This is my take on this brief; 

 ----
I left my son my medals,
My daughter my car,
And my ex wife can check for bombs.

Hospital beds feel worse than camp.
People in a room together,
Checked on by those who thing they know.

But they don’t know how I lost my leg.
They don’t know how homeless I’ll be
They don’t know how They’ve ruined me

And They don’t care.

I used to find fireworks fun.
Now they remind me of endless shots.
Of a gun in hand.

Of this pain ending.

0 comments :

My Bright Book List - Revisited

05:59 Unknown 0 Comments

On 16th September 2015, I moved to university. Cardiff Metropolitan University to be exact. And I started this blog up to make myself want to read more. I always loved reading but really I never felt like I read enough. I remember saying to my mum so often that English Literature A Level killed my love of reading. But when I took my gap year it seemed to make everything better. I had time to just sit and read and enjoy the books I wanted to enjoy. So I wrote my list in April. And yes I may have only read 9 books off my list in full, I wanted to go over the books I haven’t had a chance to read yet. 

The books I have left are as follows;

  • Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
  • To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
  • We are All Completely Beside Ourselves - Karen Joy Fowler
  • Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky 
  • Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
  • Animal Farm - George Orwell
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
  • The Man Who Bought London - Edgar Wallace
  • Dracula - Bram Stoker
  • Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
  • The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
  • A Selection of Works by William Shakespeare
  • The Gambler - Fyodor Dostoevesky
  • The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
  • Jason and Medea - Apollonius of Rhodes

This list makes it look like a lot. And in fact it is a lot of hours worth of reading that I have not yet done. However I would like to point out the exceptions. The titles in bold are novels that I have started but yet to finish. Some I have only read a few chapters of, like Lolita, whereas others I am nearly finished with, like Animal Farm. Shakespeare is one of those that I’ve decided to dip in and out of when I have time, especially as I’ve got them on my kindle, yet the majority of these novels that I have not started won’t be finished whilst I’m at university. If anything, it’s purely for the fact that I haven’t been able to bring them with me. I’m expecting that due to the nature of my course, I’ll have quite a bit of reading to do, so I’m not even entirely sure how many of the books I’ve bought to university I’ll be able to finish. My hopes are that I’ll be able to finish at least 3 of the 7, maybe even more. 


Keep an eye out for a few new books to get excited about in the coming months also, as I’m hoping to finish off any advanced copies that I have gotten from NetGalley, and I’m so excited to share them all with you. 

0 comments :

The Rest Of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness

11:45 Unknown 0 Comments

Chapter The First, in which the Messenger of the Immortals arrives in a surprising shape, looking for a permanent Vessel; and after being chased by her through the woods, indie kid Finn meets his final fate

On the day we’re the last people to see indie kid Finn alive, we’re all sprawled together in the Field, talking about love and stomachs. 
“I don’t believe that, though,” my sister says, and I look up at the slight tension in her voice. She gives me a half-annoyed nod of reassurance in the sunshine, then shakes her head again at Henna. “You always have a choice. I don’t care if you think it’s love - and by the way, NOT a word you should throw around so easily - but even if that, even if that word, you can still choose to act right."
“I said I loved that way he looked,” Henna says. “I didn’t say I loved him. You’re twisting my words. And that’s not what I’m talking about anyway. i’m talking about… how your heart fills up. Actually, no, it’s not even your heart, it’s your stomach. You feel it and everything just goes."



Patrick Ness is very surely one of my favourite authors to date. There’s something about the way that this man writes novels that gets me. It’s not even always a tugging of the heartstrings but sometimes I have to go back and re-read passages again and again just to truly realise how beautiful they are. And lots of his writing is insanely beautiful; a view seconded by John Green according to the back of this limited addition copy I own. This novel is no different!

The Rest of Us Just Live Here is told through the 1st person of Mikey. He’s about to graduate from High School and head off to College, but he just has to get through the last few weeks. He has a very tight knit group of friends including his sister, Mel, his best friend, Jared, and the girl he is hopelessly in love with, Henna. However running alongside their story, is one about the indie kids, told in 3rd person at the beginning of every chapter, fighting the threat of the Immortals. 

The way that this story is told is one of the things that took me a while to get my head around. The only real insight we get into the main threat is through these chapter descriptions. It’s what made me keep reading longer, I think, because the longer I left it between reading I forgot what had happened with the indie kids, which was actually way more important than I had originally thought. All of the events that happen to them in the long run add up to the climax of the novel for Mikey; which is actually really, really impressive. 

Another thing I was a little confused about when I first started reading was references to vampires and the undead etc. It took me a while to realise that, in this seemingly normal world, those things happened. They actually existed in the past of this small town and the story relies kind of heavily on you knowing that. I mean, how else are you supposed to believe in the Immortals, or what happens with the deer, if you don’t believe in the law that stands in the universe. 

However, what really shocked me about this novel was Ness’ way of discussing mental health amongst teens and how it feels to suffer with it. We learn that Mel, Mikey’s sister, is a survivor of an eating disorder and we are reminded of this throughout with Mikey’s uncontrollable fear of losing her to it again. Mikey isn’t immune either. Mikey struggles with OCD and this broke my heart to read about. Not only is it like obsessively washing his hands or his face, but it’s counting the panels in a room or the corners of a sheet of paper; feeling like he’s stuck in a loop. There’s a time when he’s washing his hands at his work place and Jared comes over and turns him away, just holding him there until he’s calmed down, which nearly had me in tears. 

Jared is probably one of my favourite characters in this novel. He is everything I’d probably ever want in a best friend; supportive, funny, gay and the god of cats. Yep. You read that right. God of cats. It’s my favourite best friend dynamic I’ve ever read about, even though at times it does show that not all friendships are smooth as silk. Mikey is happy to say that they’ve been together time and again just as friends, looking out for each other in their time of need, but they know that they’re just best friends. Even though they probably shouldn’t be because of their parents running against one another in the upcoming election. 


Now I can’t talk about Patrick Ness without talking about how he discusses relationships. Henna is Mikey's romantic interest in this novel and she's not described as being the prettiest of girls but there is something about the way that she is described that lets me know how much he genuinely cares about her; as a friend and as a girlfriend. Another really interesting dynamic in this novel is Mikey's jealousy over the new guy Nathan and how he is with Henna, who wants him to join her group. There is such an animosity between Mikey and Nathan that it almost comes across as a kind of sexual tension in places, but this is mostly resolved by the end of the novel. I won't tell you how. But Mikey spends most of this novel confused about how Henna feels about him and if he really does want to be with her. There are definitely moments where he evidently feels that he should let go and leave her to her own life, move to college and enjoy his life. 

Family is another relationship that we see throughout this novel. Mikey's family is dysfunctional to say the least. His mother's running for an election and his father is an alcoholic. But even with this him and Mel have to help with looking after Meredith, their 10 year old little sister who is seemingly normal. The worst thing is that Meredith is seen to be given preferential treatment because she doesn't come with a label. This, alongside their mother's campaigning, leads to a lot of contention when Meredith's favourite band, Bolts of Fire, come to play a concert in their small town. All of the families present their own challenges throughout this novel. Everyone is presented with their own challenges and they are all important, even if they aren't seen as the chosen ones. 

The message that you don't have to be the chosen one makes this novel incredibly special in my eyes. It shows that even if you're not chosen for the biggest event, or that your friends may have it slightly easier than you; you are still important. You aren't defined by the status of your mental health or how many fissures you've closed to keep out the Immortals. What matters is that you stay true to yourself. You aren't required to be anything special, and sometimes it's not the best thing to be named the chosen one. Especially if you're an indie kid, in this universe. 

Total pages - 345
Total read time - 3 hours 45 minutes
Rating /10 - 9
Recommend - I recommend you buy it immediately


Note to finish on quickly, after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, authors Keren David, Candy Gourlay and Keris Stainton set up a charity drive for the Red Cross. Patrick Ness auctioned off a chance to have the winner's name in this book. This is where the name Henna Silvennoinen came from. Second place was one of Patrick Ness' friends Jared Shurin (note the same name exactly in the novel) who agreed that if he made a donation to the Red Cross anyway his name would be in the book. I think it's rather funny that up until this point the character was a 'non-committed "Josh"'. However these are just names used fictitiously. 

0 comments :

The Manifesto on How to be Interesting - Holly Bourne

05:40 Unknown 0 Comments

Four years ago, when Bree decided to become a novelist, she’d done what she’d always done - obsessively planned, researched and plotter a no-fail manifesto. She’d read everything she could about writing, including a book by Stephen King, aka GOD. He’d apparently been rejected LOADS - so much so that he hammered a nail into the wall above his desk to spike all the “no” letters on. Delighted at the self-deprecation of it all, Bree also hammered a massive nail into the perfect plastering of her bedroom wall. And, month by month, year by year, the nail got cloffed up with her own swell of rejection letters.
Ha ha, just like Stephen King, she’d thought, spiking the first “no” letter and flipping it the middle finger. 
Then more came, and more. 


Holly Bourne is a new author to me who I’ve not heard all that much about. However I’m glad that this was my first introduction to her writing. The writing style is really easy to read and that really helped me when trying to get into the mindset of this character, Bree, and how she felt about the situations she is put into. Also I feel like the style of writing really helped with showing the immaturity of some of the characters in places. But before we get into immature characters and my thoughts about the book as a whole, you probably want to know what this book’s really about. 

Bree is a 17 year old outcast at school, wanting to be an author. Her second manuscript is rejected and she turns to her teacher Mr Fellows for support. He tells her that she needs to make her life more interesting in order for her writing to be more interesting. She takes this immediately to heart and starts a blog titled “The Manifesto on How to be Interesting” with some rules set out for herself. Her plan; infiltrate the popular gang, spill their secrets to the internet, and fall in love. Surely that couldn’t go wrong at all?

Well for one I know I’m not really the target audience for this book as it’s YA fiction, but I wanted to have a go at reading some more from this genre, and I wasn’t disappointed. A lot of the early portion of the book felt incredibly nostalgic for me as an outcast from school cliques. Bree is probably one of the most relatable protagonists I’ve ever come across, and the way that Bourne writes her is just incredible. From Bree’s suffering with self harm to her really intelligent wit, she comes across as a well rounded individual that can be admired for her strength. Yes she does silly things and you ask her “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?” and then there are times when you want her to be a real person so you can wrap your arms around her and tell her that it’s okay. Or tell her to get out of there before she does something stupid, because sometimes you just have to brace yourself and will her through.

So lets talk about some characters. There’s Bree, her best friend Holdo, the popular girls and Hugo. Hugo is one of my least favourite characters in the novel. He’s the stereotypical bad boy, lots of money, and thinks he’s God’s gift to women. I’m just incredibly glad that by the end of the novel he gets his just desserts. It’s what he bloody deserves. After all, who has an 18th birthday in a field behind their house, with live music and a DJ, in November? And who on earth calls a tent with cushions and beanbags the “Gash Palace”? The only answer to that is Hugo. 

The character of Jass actually surprised me. I was ready to hate her from the outset. Popular girl, blonde, part of the clique that spread rubbish around about people and bitch. Constantly. However it was nice to see the other side. Where Bree infiltrates their clique it was lovely to see the other side. That, although there is this exterior, they are people too who are struggling with their own problems. And maybe sometimes we are too quick to judge people. Sometimes we rush into our judgements without considering how someone might actually be. Jass’ perfect relationship with Hugo also doesn’t turn out to be all it seems, and I felt so awful for her. 
In addition to not knowing the full extent of the people we’re always around, we sometimes act irrationally without thinking about people and how they’ll react. Bree falls into this trap with her best friend Holdo. I’ve read a couple of reviews where people really didn’t like this character, but I really loved him. Almost to the point where I wished he and Bree would just get together already. But he’s an acne ridden teen with a passion for good movies and expensive wine. I’m not entirely sure what’s not to love. He’s funny and smart and I think that perhaps had things been different, Bree wouldn’t have ended up in as many situations as she did. 

There are a few instances where I feel like the plot is a little overly dramatic or at least exaggerated. One example of this is a very whirlwind student/teacher romance. I liked both characters involved and thought that in any other circumstance they would make a wonderful couple, but a lot of the time I found myself a little anxious for them both and wondered how fast their relationship was actually moving. I wonder if this was just because there wasn’t a time frame given for much of the novel so I don’t know if this took place over a couple of weeks or a few months. 

Overall however I enjoyed this book and have picked up another Holly Bourne’s novels “Am I Normal Yet?” which promises to be just as enlightening. I would just like to note that this book does deal with some rough topics; underage drinking to excess, inferred non consensual sexual intercourse, student teacher relationships and self harm. I can see how this book would be a really good gift for someone in lower secondary school, especially those who might be a social outcast themselves. 

Total pages - 448
Total read time - 5 hours
Rating /10 - 6
Recommend - Yes. Especially for nostalgia; or fans of mean girls

0 comments :

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )