Review: WILDER GIRLS by Rory Power

Wilder Girls by Rory Power
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everyone loses something to the Tox; Hetty lost her eye, Reese's hand has changed, and Byatt just disappeared completely.

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put in quarantine. The Tox turned the students strange and savage, the teachers died off one by one. Cut off from the mainland, the girls don’t dare wander past the school’s fence where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. They wait for the cure as the Tox takes; their bodies becoming sick and foreign, things bursting out of them, bits missing.

But when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her best friend, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie in the wilderness past the fence. As she digs deeper, she learns disturbing truths about her school and what else is living on Raxter Island. And that the cure might not be a cure at all... 

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Gah, this book!!!!!

I've had it on my kindle for over a year, and I wasn't sure why I hadn't yet read it, so one day I picked it up, not expecting to be totally grabbed by it...and I didn't surface until I'd finish it. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration as I read it in sections across about a week. But I truly felt like I was never leaving this book every time I paused. I was so caught up in this world, and I felt like I was living in it. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

It's amazing. Even if I was reading about a pandemic during a real global pandemic... 

Hetty, Byatt, and Reese are at the Raxter school, an all-girls school, on an island, when the Tox breaks out and they're all in quarantine, unable to leave. The Tox is a brutal illness--and it marks its victims in different ways, if they survive it at all. Hetty lost an eye to it, Byatt's got problems with her spine, and Reese has got a scaled hand. And pretty much every character has some sort of disability from it. And I wasn't expecting the disability rep to be great, I'll be honest--but it really is. As a disabled reader, I was so delighted to see this. All the characters in this book are disabled and badass. I loved it!

And Miss Welch--can we just talk about her for a moment? Her characterisation is wonderful. I was really hating her (spoiler ahead--skip to next paragraph to avoid it!) and then there's that amazing reveal where all her actions that make us hate her suddenly make sense, and we learn who the real villain of the book is.

Talking of great reveals--the way we learn info about what the Tox is and what is really going on on Raxter island is just great.

The writing in this book is incredible. It's almost stream-of-consciousness in places, just sooooo immersive and beautifully written. It's told in dual POV between Hetty and Byatt, and even their narrative voices are so distinct, despite both being written in this immersive way.

And the romance. This is such a great LGBT book with romance between Hetty and Reese (I'll be honest, I didn't see that coming as there's a real closeness between Hetty and Byatt, but it felt so natural.) I think Reese is my fave character though. There's something fierce and prickly about her. She's not as easy to like, and I love that.

The only thing that surprised me about this book is the ending... Like, is there going to be a sequel??? Because the (and another spoiler here!) whole book is about beating the Tox, and that just...doesn't happen. It feels like we've got the set up for at least another book. This one finishes with Hetty and Reese escaping the island, but it doesn't feel like the story's over yet. I really hope there's a sequel.

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Review: THE EYES OF MIKRA by Isvari

The Eyes of Mikra by Isvari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this story. You know how sometimes a book just grabs you and you can't stop thinking about it? That's this book. It's haunting and emotional, and it's almost got a timeless feel to it as it explores the effects war has on a person's mind.

The book opens with immediate intrigue and mystery and bloodshed. SJ has lost her memory, due to a bomb blast, and we're immediately thrown into the horrors of war, as well as SJ's own struggle to know who she is and to re-find her identity (and learn of the horrors of her past). We've also got the ominous 'presence' of Agent S right from the start, the antagonist, and I love how we only know as much about Agent S as SJ does at this point--we discover who this agent is just as SJ rediscovers her life.

And I just want to talk a bit about the structure--The Eyes of Mikra is the memoir of the MC, SJ. I'll admit, I didn't entirely realise it was her memoir until I was about a third of the way through, when the text explicitly says it. Up until then I'd thought it was multiple timelines, where one is told through diary extracts and the other through present-day action. But there were times when the writing seemed too reflective and not immediate enough to be present-day, so the revelation that we're actually reading a fictional memoir was great. I'm actually a huge fan of memoir, but I've never really read a fictional one--though as soon as I realised this is SJ's memoir, I realised it had a similar tone to The DNA of You and Me by Andrea Rothman--both have this contemplative voice, and are so, so emotional.

I'm also not usually a fan of books where part of the story is told through diary extracts, but the narrative device really works here. It gives an extra layer to an already complex and sophisticated story. And the diary extracts are cleverly woven into the story to add to the details we already know. And the diary extracts also have a distinctive voice too--we can really get a 'then' and 'now' sense. And the diary adds authenticity to SJ's story, especially as the voice changes and feels very natural for character growth.

One thing I really liked about this story is its emphasis on appearance and disfigurement. You've got the MC with prominent scars on her face that are in the healing process--and I felt that the way other characters react to this, namely her mother, was really telling for their relationships. I also love how at one point the mother brings her a photo of her as a child, in order to try and jog her memory of who she is, and it's a photo of the MC as a child with her favourite toy, a stuffed dog. But the thing that SJ focuses on in the photo is the tear across the dog's eyes. I thought this was a great parallel to SJ scars--"I'd pored over him myself for weeks, in the end convincing myself that my haphazard stitches made him more beautiful than the tear"--and this is just so poignant to SJ as she adapts to her new life. And this parallel of a dog with the MC is explored later in the book too, as near the end SJ tells us how she gets companionship from a stray dog. It's a really poignant moment, and it gives the whole narrative a circular feel.

It's also got some dark content that prompts the reader to look at the horrors of war and the moral dilemmas soldiers may face, such as shooting children. This book also looks at ideas of innocence and purity (in childhood) and it's contrasted powerfully with the horrors of war. And the imagery is so strong and vivid, especially when it comes to showing the different sides of human nature.

And it's got a lot of discourse on family and secrets too--as well as a feminist streak (I was so glad when SJ challenged Laki on her views on women's roles, but also how it shows how different people/societies look at this and the way beliefs are engrained like this). It's amazing how many things are blended into this story so effectively. There really is so much to say about it.

And the ending! There's a great twist. Such a reveal!

I really recommend this book. The Eyes of Mikra has everything you could want: a strong-willed MC, spies, secrets, love and death, a clever narrative, and a cast of realistic and believable characters.


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Review: IN A PICKLE OVER PANDAS by Melanie S. Weiss

In A Pickle Over PANDAS by Melanie S. Weiss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this picture book on PANDAS mainly as research to see how picture books tackle medical issues such as PANDAS and the level of detail into which they go into. I myself am an adult with PANS (similar to PANDAS) and I've written a lot of articles on my experiences with PANS, but these are all aimed at adults. So I was interested to see how a children's picture book would tackle it.

This book does go into a lot of detail about PANDAS--more than I thought it would do for this age range, but it is all necessary and important info (from my perspective as an adult). However, I do wonder if it's really suitable for children of the intended age range for the readership. It does get very technical, and it does have some pretty scary illustrations representing the mental health symptoms that PANDAS can cause. 

But, then again, if a parent is buying this for their child, chances are the child is going to have PANDAS and the book is being used as a tool to help explain the illness to the child, so the child would already be familiar with the symptoms. Therefore I think this book is more suitable for children who already have PANDAS rather than children who don't. But it is still important reading for parents as the more knowledge they have of neuropsychiatric disorders such as PANDAS and PANS the better, especially when these disorders are often misdiagnosed.

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Review: THE WICKER KING by K. Ancrum

The Wicker King by K. Ancrum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have such complicated feelings about this book. It's just...phenomenal.

You know every now and again a book just totally grabs you and you can't put it down? Reading it becomes addictive and you constantly think about the characters? This is one of those books, for me. I read it in three days, and I can't believe I've finished it now. I almost feel lost without more to read as I was so engrossed and caught up in this book. I truly was living and breathing August and Jack's story. And it's a story of a complicated friendship that turns to love, of illness and insanity, of neglect and desperation, of needing to find the people who 'get' you.

The relationship between August and Jack is INTENSE. And it's so well written. It was so tangible and I felt like I could just reach out and grab it. It's so vivid and real. I almost haven't got the words for describing it. I have never seen a relationship written as well as this. It just felt so...real. I could feel the boys' love for each other, and that ending, where they admit their feelings, was such a cathartic moment. It's the characters realising they're in love, something which the readers (and other characters) realise much earlier on.

The book's about the hallucinations that Jack develops and how with each day he's sucked more into this internal world, and how August reacts to this--the codependency that he has for Jack, and his own deteriorating mental health as a result of going along with Jack's hallucinations. August's deterioration is really well done, and we see him putting himself in more and more dangerous situations--life-endangering situations--because he does whatever Jack requests.

I think one of the reasons this book has resonated so much with me is because I have experienced psychosis, and K. Ancrum captures the nature of hallucinations so perfectly--even though we see it all through August's point of view. My psychosis, like Jack's, had a physical cause. Brain inflammation and a brain cyst in my case, rather than a brain tumour. And Jack's hallucinatory world and his behaviour just made so much sense to me. I could see myself in him, and it brought so much of that back to me.

I almost feel like I haven't even processed just how amazing this book is yet. It's just so haunting. Usually by the time I review books, I've thought a lot about why a book creates the impact it does, and how, but I feel totally overwhelmed by the power of this one, and I wanted to write this review now to reflect these feelings. 

Also, the narrative devices in this book are amazing--it's a multimedia book, and parts of the story are told via hospitalisation reports, detention slips, photos of the main characters, and a note where Jack is asking out August. The note is a reoccurring piece of the story, and we see how Jack's crossed it out at various times, then scribbled over it again, as he's struggling to process his feelings for August. This added a whole new dimension to the story too. 

I highly recommend this book.


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Review: A SONG BELOW WATER by Bethany C. Morrow

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This has to be one of the best YA fantasy/magical realism books I've read in a long time. I've actually been in a reading slump recently for fantasy--it's actually become rare (unfortunately) that I finish a fantasy, as I'm mainly into thrillers now. But this wasn't the case with A SONG BELOW WATER. This is a refreshing and authentic story.

This book is about two sisters, Effie and Tavia. It's about Black Girl Magic, Sirens, Oppression, and Racism. And it's about secrets and identity, and not knowing quite how you fit in--I especially loved Effie's story as she discovers what she is. Her sister's a siren, and there's this whole mystery over what she is. And the reveal at the end--it was perfect. (Oh and the sisters are more like 'soul sister's--they're not related by blood, and I loved what this book says about family.)

The worldbuilding is so rich and beautifully layered. Again, I find magical realism kind of hard to get to grips with, but the moment I started reading this, I was drawn in. It felt like I was really stepping into this world, and all the mythical creatures that walk this alternate Portland just seemed like they fitted in there. It was seamless.

A SONG BELOW WATER is such a relevant book for these times as it explores how Black women are treated and it's about its young Black characters finding their voices in society. There were a lot of scenes in this book that I found chilling--particularly how sirens (all of whom are Black in the book) are often given collars that silence their voices. This book really makes us think.

I actually came across A SONG BELOW WATER following the recent #BlackLivesMatter movement where the publishing industry encouraged everyone to read books by Black authors. This is one of them that I discovered, and I am so glad I did--and I'll definitely be interested in anything more that Bethany C. Morrow writes.

Review: THE 100 by Kass Morgan

The 100 by Kass Morgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Hunger Games meets Lost in this spectacular new series. Now a major TV series on E4.

No one has set foot on Earth in centuries - until now.

Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents - considered expendable by society - are being sent on a dangerous mission: to re-colonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.

CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves - but will she ever forgive him Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.

Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope. 

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I decided to read this book after watching the first season of the TV series. Immediately I was hooked—mainly because I realised the book was so different. We’ve got new characters in this book (including main character Glass) and new storylines.

The narrative is split between four POV characters: Wells, Clarke, Bellamy, and Glass. And I guess because I read this after having watched the series, I can’t help but compare it. I soon realised that characters who’d died in the TV series early on weren’t going to die in the book—instead, we get to know a lot more about them. And these four characters are really well written. They’ve got flaws. Though I have to admit that with the exception of Bellamy, their narrative voices sounded a little similar.

While these four characters are extremely well written, I found many of the secondary and minor characters a little flat. I’d have liked to see Luke and Thalia especially fleshed out a bit more. Octavia’s characterisation seemed a little stronger, but again, not as strong as the POV characters.

So I loved the worldbuilding in this book. Perhaps more than in the tv series, though it is of course similar. But the book feels a lot more realistic. The science is more explained--and it seems like their technology has taken a more natural progression than in the books. An example of this is the cornea slips that many of the main characters have on the spaceship, which don't appear in the TV series.

Talking of the spaceship--it's a lot more structured in the book. And there are clearer divisions. So you've got different sections of the ship, such as Phoenix, and each has a different class-status and we see the conflict between these classes and how some are seen as dispensable. I thought this provided a great way to look at modern societies and how elitist some people can be.

The narrative is told through a mixture of present day action for all four POV characters and their flashbacks. And the flashbacks are what really held the book together. They made everything so much more cohesive; they also really helped me understand the lead-up to the book’s set up. Reading the final flashbacks at the end was an “aha” moment as it made me truly understand what had been happening at the beginning. Not to say that there hadn’t been enough info provided at the start—there had, but the ending just gave it all that little bit of extra meaning.

So this book is shorter than I was expecting it to be. And although Glass had a clear arc in her narrative, there wasn’t so much a complete arc for Clarke, Wells, or Bellamy. Instead, the final few pages introduces another element—the other people who have survivor on earth. This clearly sets up for the next book, and because of this, for me, the book’s written more like a TV series than a novel series. I thought that was especially interesting.

And I do just want to say that although Clarke has two love interests--Wells and Bellamy--it's not really a typical love triangle, which I really appreciated. We see her with both of them at different times in the book, but the romance is definitely not a huge drive-force of the book, which I really appreciated.

The writing is so addictive though, and I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended if you want a YA dystopian/post-apocalyptic/science fiction read.

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Review: THE PLEASURE PLAN by Laura Zam

The Pleasure Plan: A Sexual Healing Odyssey--1 Woman, 6 Sexual Problems, 30 Curative Adventures by Laura Zam
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Pleasure Plan by Laura Zam

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book going in—but as soon as I heard about it, I knew I wanted to read it. I’m in a group with other writers whose releases have been affected by Covid-19, and we each decided to buy and review 5 other books from the group. When I saw Laura Zam’s book, I was so intrigued. And part of this is because I am asexual. I don’t experience sexual attraction—so reading a book about sexual wellbeing and learning how to heal so you can enjoy sex appealed to me because I was curious. Sexual attraction and sex drives are outside of my own experience. And I do like reading about things I don’t experience or don’t identify with. I am also a massive fan of medical memoir, and I read this whole book in under a day.

The Pleasure Plan is part medical memoir, part self-help book. Zam tells us her story of healing from sexual trauma and her experiences of vaginismus, a physiological condition that makes vaginal penetration difficult or impossible, due to the body’s reaction to fear instigating muscle spasms.

This is such a personal story and I really commend Zam in writing it. It can’t have been easy, and the prose is well-written and the story insightful. She examines various medical professionals’ views toward female sexual experiences and sexuality, also examining the agency needed when one seeks out a diagnosis. She also explored her celibate year and what her sexuality means for her.

This book is so, so personal. I think that’s one thing that really surprised me. It recounts some very intimate moments in her search for sexual healing, and in doing so, Zam makes herself vulnerable. This book reveals her bravery.

But this book isn’t just about sex. It’s also about her marriage and her husband. It’s about the experiences that shaped her, the childhood sexual abuse she suffered, and how assault is about power. It’s an examination of her past relationships and patriarchal cultures. It’s also a story about her family and friends too, those who support her, and how they’ve been subjected to the negatives of patriarchal culture. It’s about Zam’s work as a playwright and the one-person play she also wrote on this topic. It’s about her examining her pain from many different angles as she seeks to heal herself.

The Pleasure Plan is a very feminist text. Zam encourages women to take control of their bodies and shows them that their pleasure is important. It’s the feminist slant that I was really able to engage with. As an asexual, I didn’t really identify with Zam’s desire to “fix” her sexual problems, not on a personal level, but I did find it really interesting. Particularly the examination of sexual drive and Zam’s year of celibacy. (I was also really pleased to see it called celibacy as often it’s mistakenly referred to as asexuality—but right from the start, Zam tells us she’s a sexual being and doesn’t identify as asexual, so I was really pleased about this distinction.) Zam tells us of the many professionals she consulted and one of them—one of the first in the book—did say it is fine to have no libido. I really appreciated this—as so often asexuals are treated as if there’s something wrong with us that needs fixing. We’re often viewed as “broken.” And so when Zam questions the idea of being broken at the start—“what if I’m just broken?”—this was something that really engaged me and that I was able to relate to, albeit Zam was talking about the painful sex she experienced, and not identifying as asexual and being perceived as broken because of others’ views on asexuality.

But when you look at Zam’s experiences without focusing on sex and her quest for sexual healing, you see the statements that she’s also making about female health care. And these are universal things. Zam shows us how female health is often seen as of lesser importance than male health. It seems women are expected to endure some pain—and often female pain isn’t taken seriously or it’s just seen as “normal”. At one point in the book, Zam tells us of how she hides her pain, feeling ashamed to talk about it, only to discover she’s actually got complications from appendicitis and is at risk of becoming septic. The doctor tells her she must have a high pain threshold and I think this is a part that really spoke to me. Because this memoir highlights female resilience in a society where female pain isn’t talked about and thus female resilience is often overlooked or ignored.

The writing itself is really good—and it’s clear Zam is a writer. All the other people in her book have great descriptions and characterisation, and Zam is at times analytical in how these people’s behaviour is shaped by their own experiences. These people feel real.

The workbook/self-help sections did throw me a little. Each chapter ends with a little section where the reader is invited to work on healing from their own sexual trauma or dysfunction so they can enjoy sex. Obviously I am not the target market here, but I have never seen this format before in a medical memoir. It made it fresh and new, even if I was surprised at first. But for those reading this book because they also want sexual healing, I can really see how these parts will be helpful.

Overall, this is a thoughtful and insightful memoir that I’m sure will have significant value to many women seeking sexual healing.


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