Review: MONDAY’S NOT COMING by Tiffany Jackson

Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried. When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year’s rumors and not with her grades on the line. Now Claudia needs her best—and only—friend more than ever. But Monday’s mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday’s sister April is even less help.

As Claudia digs deeper into her friend’s disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she’s gone?

___

Okay, so I’ve been wanting to read this book for what seems like ages, and when my UK pre-order finally arrived, I was ecstatic. And this book is AMAZING. Seriously. It blew me away. I can’t believe just how good it was. It’s probably my favourite read of 2018 so far.

It’s rare that I read a book that I had such high expectations for based on what I’ve heard AND it lives up to those expectations. Well, in fact, this book exceeded them BY FAR.

I loved how the different timelines are woven together, how we see the before and after of the disappearance of Monday Charles—and the effect this has on the narrator, Claudia. And wow, that twist near the end? I did not see that coming. I was speechless.

And Tiffany Jackson is an expert and creating tension, let me tell you! I just had to keep reading. Jackson is now an auto-buy author for me.

In summary, MONDAY’S NOT COMING is an emotional, poignant, and harrowing story of a girl’s disappearance and her best friend’s struggle to find out what happened to her. It covers difficult topics—child abuse, neglect, and bullying, to name a few—but in a skilled and sensitive way, all the while creating a real page-turner that had me reading well into the night.

Five stars, without a doubt.

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What I'm Currently Reading... And What's Coming Up

So, I thought I'd write a quick post about my current and upcoming reads as I haven't been able to read as much as I'd like to recently, as I've had so little time due to illness and deadlines for my own writing, and so it feels like it's taking me FOREVER to read a single book! But, the good side of this is that it draws out these books and they're amazing books--so they last a little longer.  And I really want to talk about them!

Current Reads:

• Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson, YA Contemporary

This is a book that's been on my radar for ages and I've been waiting so long for it to release in the UK. Well, my pre-order finally arrived about five days ago and I've been reading it in snatched moments here and there. Currently on page 95!

• Celestial by S.E. Anderson, NA Science Fiction (ARC from Author) 

S.E. Anderson is one of my author friends and critique partners. I'm delighted to get a chance to read her fourth novel early! 

• Whisper by Lynette Noni, YA Dystopian (ARC from NetGalley)

So I'm just over halfway with this book and I feel like I've been reading it forever. I've found the first eight or so chapters to be a little slow in terms of pacing, but now things are really picking up and it's fast becoming a near-favourite for YA dystopian. 

• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi (YA Fantasy) 

I'm just over halfway with this book too, and I love it so much. I've been reading a couple of pages every day for this one--for quite a long time--as it's one of those really special books that I just want to savour and really process. The writing's so beautiful. 

Upcoming Reads:

So two of my upcoming reads at the moment are books I ordered after UKYAChat on Twitter a few weeks ago. The theme was YA books that talk about traditionally 'tough' issues, and I asked for recs on books where characters having eating disorders. One of them--Karen Gregory's Countless--I read and reviewed last week, but I've still got lots I'm looking forward to:

• Paperweight by Meg Haston (YA Contemporary)
• What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard (YA Contemporary)

And I'm still waiting for Winter Girls by Laurie Halse Anderson to arrive. 

Other books in my to-read pile include: 

• Miss Planet Earth by S.E. Anderson (NA Science Fiction) -- signed copy!
• The Extinction Trials by S.M. Wilson (YA Science Fiction)
• The Last Man by Mary Shelley (Adult Apocalyptic) --  this is a re-read as I read this book first for part of my degree a few years ago

What about you? Have you read any of these books? 

Review: TRAVELER by S.E. Anderson

Traveler by S.E. Anderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sally’s search for Earth isn’t off to a good start: chased out of her hotel room and into the broom closet of a spaceship, she’s accidentally become a stowaway on the Alliance Flagship, Traveler.

But when sabotage and murder show the crew’s true colors, Zander and Blayde are forced to stay and help them out of their mess. Lies, drama, and deceit lead them light years away to a mysterious planet on the edge of the galaxy, where the crew must band together just to stay alive. Which would be much easier if they didn’t have to deal with a diva first-mate, a droid with a religious obsession, and Blayde’s Ex whose brain is a spaceship.

Finding Earth has to be put on the back burner, as Sally’s stuck tending alien boo-boos - and she still has no idea what she’s doing. And she might not live long enough to get off the planet in one piece.

Traveler is the third book in S.E. Anderson’s Starstruck Saga and I think it might just be my favourite yet. It follows the usual crew—Sally, Zander, and Blayde—as they become stuck on a broken spaceship...only to discover everything is not as it seems and there are definite bad guys hanging among them.

This book has so many twists! I was actually speechless with the one early on involving the ship’s crew! And equally, the one at the 75% mark involving Kork surprised me too. I totally did not see that coming.

And Kork—okay, I loved him. He’s definitely my favourite character now. (Sorry, Zander!)

The last quarter of this book was what really made it an absolutely fantastic read for me. Everything came together and I loved how it reminded us of things in the first two books, pulling on strands of those plots and incorporating them into the end of book three—yet doing this in a way that still leaves an unanswered question for the next book. Because of this amalgamation of different plot elements, Traveler has a ‘wider’ feel than the other two books, and Sally also seems more mature and we see more character growth from her.

The other thing I loved about this book was the Star Trek references! Adding this contemporary angle to a book which takes place in the near future and involves space travel and alien adventures made it more relatable—plus, hearing that Sally is a big Star Trek fan too also helps make her personally more relatable and allows her to call out elements that seem too much like “plot points in a film” in the scenarios that happen to her on the spaceship. That was a really nice touch.

All in all, this is a fast-paced, wild space adventure with diverse characters, humour, and just the right amount of action.

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Review: COUNTLESS by Karen Gregory - 5 stars

Countless by Karen Gregory
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

'Is there anything that's concerning you?’ Felicity says. ‘College, home, boyfriends?' Though she's more or less smiling at this last one.

I don't smile. Instead, I feel my face go hot. Silence stretches as wide as an ocean.
When I look up, Felicity has this expression on her face like she's just seen Elvis. Slowly, she leans forward and in a gentle voice I've never heard her use before she says, 'Have you done a pregnancy test?'

When Hedda discovers she is pregnant, she doesn’t believe she could ever look after a baby. The numbers just don’t add up. She is young, and still in the grip of an eating disorder that controls every aspect of how she goes about her daily life. She’s even given her eating disorder a name – Nia. But as the days tick by, Hedda comes to a decision: she and Nia will call a truce, just until the baby is born. 17 weeks, 119 days, 357 meals. She can do it, if she takes it one day at a time …

Heartbreaking and hopeful by turns, Karen Gregory’s debut novel is a story of love, heartache and human resilience. And how the things that matter most can’t be counted. Perfect for fans of Lisa Williamson, Non Pratt and Sarah Crossan. 

——

So I came across this book during #UKYAchat as we were talking about YA novels that address or examine difficult issues in tactful ways. During the chat, I asked for recommendations on books where the main characters have eating disorders, and a whole host were recommended to me. I hopped onto Amazon and ordered a few, and Karen Gregory’s COUNTLESS was the first to arrive.

I devoured this book. I literally read the whole thing in three hours; I was so caught up in Hedda’s story, I simply couldn’t put it down.

Hedda is 17, has Anorexia Nervosa and is pregnant. We meet Hedda a few months after she’s been discharged from an in-patient program and is living in her own flat alone due to family problems. She’s on the way to recovery, but we’re told she’s had multiple admissions to the unit for at least the last five years, and living alone now doesn’t mean she’s completely recovered—especially when we learn of her self-imposed meal plans, calorie counting, and obsession with foods. As someone who also struggles with eating, I really related to Hedda’s struggles around eating foods that weren’t her safe foods (such as the omelette Robin makes her), and I thought the author wrote this in a very sensitive way.

So, Hedda finds out she’s pregnant, and we watch as she adapts to her new situation and as she struggles to cope, wondering how her eating disorder is going to let her eat and have a healthy pregnancy, and how she’ll manage to look after a baby as well as herself.

Gregory’s treatment of Anorexia and other eating disorders in this book is really masterful and skilled. Personifying Hedda’s eating disorder as “Nia” in Hedda’s first-person narrative really emphasises the grip that eating disorders have on a person—and having Hedda’s therapist call out this personification really highlights Hedda’s “unhealthy” thoughts rather than allowing readers to get comfortable with the protagonist’s mindset.

One of my fears when reading books about eating disorders is that they’re going to be an almost “how-to” guide, but for me, this was far from that. I found COUNTLESS to be a poignant story of the complex nature of eating disorder recovery—and relapse—which also examines the effects of eating disorders on those around the individual, while never being preachy.

There’s a slight love story in this book as well, but it didn’t feel forced or there just for the sake of it. It really worked in the background of Hedda’s story, and the main focus was on Hedda’s struggle to cope with two things: her eating disorder and her baby.

The ending... well, it made me sad (I won’t say why as I don’t want to spoil it), but I can see that it was the only ending really suitable. If it had the opposite ending it could’ve risked downplaying the controlling nature of eating disorders and suggested that they’re easy to overcome. They’re not, and recovery is a complex, complex process that looks different for each person. But the ending shows that it’s okay to need help and to ask for it, and that’s what I really appreciated about the book.

A lot of other important themes and issues are covered in the subplots of this book: poverty, death of a best friend, loneliness, social isolation, family issues, parental divorce, prejudice towards teen mothers, friendship, romance, and emotional stability. But “Nia” is also at the centre of all these issues as they’re explored—and these issues are definitely examined through the lens of “Nia,” as eating disorders affect every part of life. They can’t just be turned off in some areas.

To conclude, this is a well-written, poignant story about a teenage mother, with anorexia, who’s caught in the ‘battle’ of what’s most important to her—her baby or her eating disorder—while knowing that the answer to that question isn’t easy as Hedda doesn’t have a choice when it comes to obeying or disobeying the voice of her eating disorder. All she can do is try to compromise with “Nia” in order to be there for her baby and keep her daughter healthy.

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Review: THE DATE by Louise Jensen

Today's the release date of Louise Jensen's latest psychological thriller, and let me tell you, this is a page-turner! I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of this novel, and I loved it so much.


The Date by Louise Jensen

Something bad has happened to Alison Taylor. 

Her Saturday night started normally. Recently separated from her husband, Ali has been persuaded by her friends to go on a date with a new man. She is ready, she is nervous, she is excited. She is about to take a step into her new future. 

By Sunday morning, Ali’s life is unrecognisable. She wakes, and she knows that something is wrong. She is home, she is alone, she is hurt and she has no memory of what happened to her. 

Worse still, when she looks in the mirror, Ali doesn’t recognise the face staring back at her. She can’t recognise her friends and family. And she can’t recognise the person who is trying to destroy her… 


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the first book by Louise Jensen I’ve read, and I was impressed. The Date is a tightly-woven thriller that cleverly entwines the actions of one woman’s past with her current life when she wakes after a vicious attack with no memory of the event. In many ways, it reminded me of SJ Watson’s Before I Go To Sleep (which I absolutely loved), but Louise Jensen’s latest book definitely holds its own and is a stunning read.

As a main character, Ali was likeable—but complex. Each chapter carefully revealed new layers to her that made her not only believable but relatable too. I struggled a little to relate to a couple of the secondary characters (particularly Jules and James), but this didn’t really affect my reading experience much.

I love books that include medical disorders and illnesses, and this one—where the main character suffers from prosopagnosia or “face blindness”—did not disappoint. While this condition is shown to only be one part of Ali it does provide a powerful premise and keep the tension up as Ali (and the reader) can’t recognise her attacker.

At times, I found the flashbacks to be a little long, but I can see what an important part of the story they were—in many ways this is almost a duel narrative of sorts between Ali and her younger self as we see how the events of her past shape her future.

I loved the ending. I’m a huge sucker for twists (and I knew one would be coming) but I did not foresee this exact twist.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. I’ll definitely be picking up Louise Jensen’s other books.

Review: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Written by an anonymous 14th-century poet, this epic poem is recognized as an equal of Chaucer's masterworks and of the great Old English poems, including "Beowulf." This edition includes a Preface by Raffel and a new Introduction. Revised reissue.

When I first started reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight I really wasn't sure that I was going to like it. But how wrong was I?!

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

To be honest, I knew nothing about this book before I picked it up (the copy I have is translated by Bernard O'Donoghur) and, being a massive fan of the TV series, Merlin, I was pleasantly surprised to realise that the main character, Sir Gawain, was one of Arthur's knights. And, in the book, you meet King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, several other knights (Lancelot is mentioned) and Morgan Le Fay (Morganna in the TV series). And Merlin is mentioned too!

So yeah, this really was my kind of book!

At first, even after realising who the characters were, I wasn't sure how easy this book was going to be to read, as it's written in verse form. But wow, it read just like a book! A lot easier to read than The Odyssey of Homer or Beowulf, in my opinion.

The plot of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is brilliant. Focussing on themes of greed, pride, trickery and loyalty, this is a great read and I highly recommend it to everyone. (Go and read it NOW!)

This is quite a short book, so it's easily accessible to the modern reader, and I was able to read it in one sitting. And it really was worth it.

There's so much foreshadowing in this book, which I loved! And the imagery is great too, whilst the characterisation is superb. Detail has been used well, but there aren't great chunks of description which could put readers off. No, this is a lean book with a truly great plot, and if you've watched Merlin, I'd definitely recommend that you read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Review: INFLUENCE by David R. Bernstein

Influence by David R. Bernstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you could manipulate reality, would you?

Seventeen-year-old Kaylin has been on the run, hiding her untapped abilities for six years, but rescuing a mysterious guy risks exposing the depths of her power. The manipulative sector groups hunt her kind. Life has never been easy, but resisting is even harder. This harsh, new world will no longer allow her to remain hidden.

In a future where greed and corruption has torn American society apart; these relentless sector groups prey on powerful youths to mold the populace to expand their reach. Young people with the ability to shift the mindset of others are high-value targets. War is waging to expand and control this new world. Influencers, as they're called, hold the key to humanity's future.

Will fighting back cost Kaylin everything?

Influence is the first novel in the Influence series, a sci-fi, dystopian epic with a touch of romance, loads of fast-paced action, with a unique story concept. If you are a Maze Runner or Divergent fan than this is the book is for you!

As soon as I read the back cover copy for INFLUENCE, I just knew I had to buy it. And this book did not disappoint.

The premise is unique and original, and Bernstein's world building was great. The writing was fluid and tight, and the packing was spot on. I particularly loved that we're given some backstory, but that we're shown it (no telling!) in flashback-like episodes where it's applicable, and Bernstein leads us into these scenes very cleverly, in such a way that I knew it was a flashback. There was none of that confusion (the 'is this happening now or has it already happened?') that you sometimes get when books use flashbacks as a device to tell backstory. And I mean, the flashback near the beginning contained pretty important backstory too, explaining why Kay is now on the run and answering any questions I had at that point. So, yes, there's no heavy info-dumping, and we're given just the right amount of backstory to go by.

As a main character, Kaylin is great. I also really appreciated the relationship between Kay and her best friend, Amanda. It was refreshing to see.

As the plot builds, the tension and stakes increase. And there's a lot of action, which I absolutely love. The ending! Wow. I loved it and it fitted the whole book so well. I don't want to give any spoilers there--but let's just say it's very cleverly written. I read the whole thing in less than 24 hours.

Would definitely recommend to dystopian fans.

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