Book Reviews
Elif Batuman’s The Idiot follows Selin beginning her university adventure at Harvard. As a highly relatable coming-of-age novel, The Idiot emphasises the difficulties young adults face regarding finding new friends, falling in love, and feeling as if you’re not doing enough to achieve your dreams. It tackles these themes with humour, and I believe the story will connect with many readers on a personal level.
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V.E. Schwab’s debut novel, The Near Witch, is set in the town of Near in which our main character, Lexi, has been led to believe 3 things. Firstly, that The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. Secondly, that you must not listen to the wind, for the wind is lonely and always looking for company. And third, that there are no strangers in the town of Near. However, these sayings start to be proven false when a young boy that nobody knows is spotted in the town, and soon after children start disappearing in the dead of night from their beds. This novel is part fairy tale and part love story, following Lexi’s hunt for the children and the mysterious young boy who has fallen under suspicion.
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Hot Milk by Deborah Levy primarily follows the relationship and journey of Sofia, a young anthropologist who has had to put her PhD on hold, and Rose, her mother who has an inability to use her legs properly. The two are in Spain to visit a specialist clinic run by Dr. Gomez in hopes to understand Rose’s peculiar health problems, and therefore one of the main themes that this novel discusses is illness. Moreover, it is somewhat a coming of age novel in how Sofia tries to form an identity separate from her mother’s.
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Secret identities. Extraordinary powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.
The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies — humans with extraordinary abilities — who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone… except the villains they once overthrew.
Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice — and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.
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4 parallel London’s, thievery, piracy, royalty, dark magic… this series has it all. I have tried to keep this as spoiler free as possible, but obviously when talking about multiple books in a series that is quite difficult. So please proceed with caution if you have yet to read the books but plan to, however I don’t think anything I have spoken about relates to the big plot twists and will neither hinder your overall experience.
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Sally Rooney’s Normal People is a novel that left me with mixed emotions. Whilst parts of it I appreciated, understood and enjoyed, there were also many aspects that made it a frustrating story to read.
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers—one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
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Set during the Second World War, Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys is an emotional, heartwarming story following thousands of refugees in East Prussia trying to escape to freedom on the Wilhelm Gustloff ship. The story of our main characters, Joana (a Lithuanian nurse), Emilia (a young Polish girl), Florian (a Prussian solider), and Alfred (a German sailor) all intertwine in what can be described as an even more devastating Titanic story.
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Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows are the first two books in Cassandra Clare’s The Dark Artifices series, which is the third series in The Shadowhunter Chronicles. We first meet the characters that we follow in this series in City of Heavenly Fire, the sixth book in The Mortal Instruments, however Lady Midnight takes place a few years after when the characters are slightly older. With the release of the third Dark Artifices book, Queen of Air and Darkness, soon approaching, I thought that I would post a joint review for the first two books in anticipation for the next. Continue reading “LADY MIDNIGHT AND LORD OF SHADOWS REVIEW”
Truthwitch is the first novel in Susan Dennard’s fantasy series, The Witchlands, which follows best friends Safiya and Iseult. Safiya is a Truthwitch, meaning she can determine what’s true and what’s false. This is an extremely powerful magic that people are willing to kill for in order to be able to use it to their advantage – particularly the nobility as Safiya could be used as a political pawn. Iseult is a Threadwitch, and this means that she can physically see the bonds between people, but people fear her and where she comes from. Dilemmas arise for both characters which force them to flee separately, and the story follows these characters throughout their journey of stumbling into more trouble.
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“A host of co-dependent teens with a battery of psychological issues comb rural Virginia for a dead Welsh king with dubious magical powers. Trees talk; hitmen put down roots; dead people live; living people die. Cars are described in loving detail. Fuckweasel. A house full of psychics tells everybody the future and drinks a lot on-page considering it’s a young adult series. Nobody kisses anybody, which is weird because everybody loves everybody. There’s rich boys! Poor boys! Sad boys! Angry boys! Raven boys! Collect them all!”
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Jenni Leigh Reads 