Review: ALL YOUR TWISTED SECRETS by Diana Urban

 

All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This thrilling debut, reminiscent of new fan favorites like One of Us Is Lying and the beloved classics by Agatha Christie, will leave readers guessing until the explosive ending.

Welcome to dinner, and again, congratulations on being selected. Now you must do the selecting.

What do the queen bee, star athlete, valedictorian, stoner, loner, and music geek all have in common? They were all invited to a scholarship dinner, only to discover it’s a trap. Someone has locked them into a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note saying they have an hour to pick someone to kill … or else everyone dies.

Amber Prescott is determined to get her classmates and herself out of the room alive, but that might be easier said than done. No one knows how they’re all connected or who would want them dead. As they retrace the events over the past year that might have triggered their captor’s ultimatum, it becomes clear that everyone is hiding something. And with the clock ticking down, confusion turns into fear, and fear morphs into panic as they race to answer the biggest question: Who will they choose to die?

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I already know this is going to be one of my top reads of 2021. It's PHENOMENAL.

I love locked room mysteries. And I love escape room mysteries. I love stories about friendships--especially when those friendships turn bad. I love unlikeable female characters. I love unreliable narrators. And I love alternating timelines. This book has it all. I mean, I was almost afraid that it wouldn't live up to my expectations, but this book is phenomenal. Truly spectacular.

The book starts with Amber invited to a restaurant to meet the mayor, as she's got a scholarship. Also invited are her boyfriend Robbie, her former best friend Priya, her current friend Sasha, the school drug-dealer Scott, and Diego, who is the boy Amber now likes. When the six get to the restaurant, they're trapped. The door locks, and they can't get out. Then Amber discovers a bomb with a one-hour countdown and a syringe. Instructions tell them that the syringe contains poison and they must choose one person to die before the hour's up, else the bomb will kill them all. Cue: panic.

But how amazing is this set up? So, the narrative alternates between them in this one-hour countdown as they panic and try to think of ways out, and scenes from the last year or so. We get to know the characters, and gradually the past scenes reveal huge secrets--secrets that are then brought up in the current timeline as the characters turn on each other, as they try to work out who to die.

And this is where we see that all these characters are complex. They've all got secrets, all got flaws--it's amazing writing.

The next part of my review contains spoilers, so be warned!

Amber is our main character. She's hugely talented with music and she's also still grieving over her older sister's death. Maggie took her own life after being bullied for about a year by an unknown girl.

Sasha is the queen bee of the school. We see her befriend Amber, and readers can immediately tell that Sasha is using Amber. But Amber can't see this at the time, and it was infuriating! We could see exactly what was going on. But in the present timeline, Amber's very aware of who Sasha really is--but she doesn't expect for more secrets to be revealed in the bomb's countdown, namely that Sasha is the girl who bullied Maggie, causing Maggie to commit suicide.

Priya is Amber's former best friend. She was also initiated into Sasha's popular group when Sasha befriended Amber, but Sasha bullied Priya too in the same way she'd already bullied Maggie (and she knew what happened to Maggie, too). The bullying in this storyline culminates in Priya having her front teeth knocked out and Sasha sharing a video of it to the whole school. Priya then drops Sasha as a friend, and also Amber.

Next we have Robbie. He's Sasha's best friend and becomes Amber's boyfriend. He's a nice enough guy--until he believes that his dreams and ambitions are more important than Amber's. Then he becomes a bit of dick.

Diego is Amber's friend from when she was a child. The two fell out after Diego invented a colour-changing sponge and Diego's father resigned from Amber's father's business, causing it to fold. Diego is also extremely intelligent, and we see how Sasha is in direct competition with him for getting into Harvard. Sasha does her best to sabotage Diego at every opportunity, no matter the consequence.

And last is Scott. He's the stoner of the school, and he at first seems out of place being invited to the restaurant--it's believable to Amber that all the others have been invited there to celebrate their scholarships, but not Scott.

So, this is the set-up. (And even more spoilers ahead now). As the hour passes, the characters turn on each other and several get injured. When trying to break the windows to escape, Scott falls and breaks his ankle. Priya is hypoglycemic and passes out at one point, but Diego revives her.

The writing is so good that I kept working out what I'd do if I was in this situation. Faking a death seemed like an obvious thing to do, but it took the characters a long time to decide to do this.

And as the time is running out and they're all convinced they have to kill someone, Amber manages to turn everyone against Sasha so she is the one who gets injected with the syringe of poison.

At which point, they discover that the poison isn't real! I mean, to be honest, I was thinking that would have to happen. But Sasha, still alive, turns on the others. She attacks Amber, and she tries to kill her. Amber is saved by Priya, who stabs Sasha with a shard of glass from the window in self-defense. And Sasha dies.

And at this point, my eyes were so wide as I was reading (well, listening, as I had the audiobook, which has fantastic narration!). They'd literally killed one of the group. And still the bomb was counting down.

When the time runs out, and they're all alive, it's so tense. They hear footsteps and this was the part where I really had no idea who had orchestrated all this--which, I must admit, is unusual. I read a lot of YA thrillers and usually have some sort of idea. But I was flummoxed. And it's a delivery driver who lets them out. He's been instructed to deliver a cake to the room with a message telling them that they now know who each other are.

This writing--it's just so amazing. Tense. I was on the edge of my seat. (I actually had to stop listening at this point, as I had to get off the bus, and I was desperate to keep listening!).

And then we have the timeline going to four hours ago--and we get the huge reveal. Amber set all this up!!!! So, I didn't see it coming--even though one of the past scenes ends with Amber wanting to get revenge on Sasha. But I trusted Amber as she's our first person narrator. I believed her when she said she didn't know what was going on.

But then the pieces started to slot into place. Amber was the one who found the bomb in the room. All the people in the room were connected most strongly to Amber. And this is a story of revenge. It's a story of Amber wanting to teach Sasha a lesson--it wasn't supposed to end up with murder, but it did. It's Priya getting revenge on Sasha for the bullying--though Priya only stabs Sasha to stop her killing Amber. It's just...wow. That reveal--that Amber was behind it all--changed my whole view on her. I didn't know what to think anymore. I was totally blown away. Absolutely blown away. And it made Amber unlikeable. She was going to get away what was basically murder--even if she'd not intended to kill. But then Amber feels guilt. She goes to turn herself in, and is stopped by Priya and Diego.

It really is a story about the power of friendship and how toxic teenagers can be. It's a story of cold, calculated revenge. A story of secrets being revealed and the lengths that people will go to in order to keep them.

Highly recommended.

There are lot of trigger warnings for this book: suicide, drugs, bullying, abuse, implied school shooting at one point, potential for eating disorder survivors to be triggered by some of the bullying language used toward Priya.

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Review: CONCRETE ROSE by Angie Thomas

 

Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

International phenomenon Angie Thomas revisits Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give in this searing and poignant exploration of Black boyhood and manhood.

If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.

Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control.

Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father.

Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.

When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can't just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

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This book--just wow!!!! I loved THE HATE U GIVE, and so the moment I heard that CONCRETE ROSE was set in the same world of Garden Heights, I just had to drop everything and read it immediately. And I'm sooooo glad I did.

Angie Thomas's writing is just amazing, and this story is so, so real. It's authentic and compelling. And it really helps to remove stigma too.

Maverick is such a great character. He is a Black man who is in a gang. He deals drugs, and there's drug-related violence, and drug-related murders and deaths affecting those close to him. But he is so much more than this--he's a doting father, even as a teenager. He's only selling drugs as he needs to support his mother, and especially when he finds out he's got a child. (And then discovers his girlfriend is also pregnant--two children. He is desperate to provide for his family.) He's fiercely protective of his family and friends. He's kind. He's genuine. We see him make mistakes--and we see him learn from mistakes.

Mav's father is in prison for the entirety of the book, and we learn that this is because the only way out of the King Lords' gang is to be go to prison, often taking the fall for someone else in the gang, or to end up dead. Mav says countless times how he was encouraged by his father to join the gang for his protection--and we can really see this in the book too. King and the other King Lords do protect him from the GDs, the warring gang. And we can see how this almost creates a vicious cycle of these men ending up in prison. Something Mav is desperate to avoid as he wants to be there for his children, especially when he knows what it's like to grow up with a father in prison.

But then Mav's cousin is murdered and he's expected to kill the murderer. We see his desperation to do this, and it's heartbreaking because we've already been shown what could happen.

And, you know what? I desperately wanted things to work out for Maverick--perhaps more than any other protagonist I'd read. And I was so worried that it was going to end with him in big trouble in prison (like, I was sure that was happening). Thankfully, it didn't--though having read THUG we get a hint of what Maverick does have to do to get out of the gang.

But, yes, I couldn't read this book fast enough. (I also LOVED the reference to Justyce in Nic Stone's Dear Martin too!)

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Review: THE VANISHING DEEP by Astrid Scholte

The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Seventeen-year-old Tempe was born into a world of water. When the Great Waves destroyed her planet, its people had to learn to survive living on the water, but the ruins of the cities below still called. Tempe dives daily, scavenging the ruins of a bygone era, searching for anything of value to trade for Notes. It isn't food or clothing that she wants to buy, but her dead sister's life. For a price, the research facility on the island of Palindromena will revive the dearly departed for twenty-four hours before returning them to death. It isn't a heartfelt reunion that Tempe is after; she wants answers. Elysea died keeping a terrible secret, one that has ignited an unquenchable fury in Tempe: Her beloved sister was responsible for the death of their parents. Tempe wants to know why.

But once revived, Elysea has other plans. She doesn't want to spend her last day in a cold room accounting for a crime she insists she didn't commit. Elysea wants her freedom and one final glimpse at the life that was stolen from her. She persuades Tempe to break her out of the facility, and they embark on a dangerous journey to discover the truth about their parents' death and mend their broken bond. But they're pursued every step of the way by two Palindromena employees desperate to find them before Elysea's time is up--and before the secret behind the revival process and the true cost of restored life is revealed. 

--

The Vanishing Deep has to have some of the most impressive worldbuilding I've ever come across. And I LOVED this world--set in the future where 99% of the world is water, and the ocean itself becomes this dangerous, menacing character.

Tempest has been alone for the last two years, since her sister drowned. Three years before that, her parents both died too. But Tempest can get one of them back--Palendromena offers a revival programme, and Tempest's been diving for relics of the old world that she can sell to fund the revival of her sister. She knows that Elysea died with a huge secret relating to their parents' demise, and this is Tempest's goal in reviving her sister rather than sisterly love.

Well, at least, it is at first.

But Scholte throws us twist after twist, (and this review's going to contain spoilers), and soon Tempest realises that she should've revived Elysea for love to start with, not through anger, as she realises just how much she misses her sister--and how wrong about her sister she was.

And Elysea tells Tempest that their parents are still alive. I did NOT see that twist coming and I just couldn't read fast enough. This is where the action really starts going, when the two girls escape the revival centre and go on a crazy journey to find their family.

And of course they're being chased--it's a thrill-ride. Lor and Raylan are the chasers, and Lor is also the other narrator for this book (the first being Tempest). Lor is such a complex character. Right from the start, I knew he was guarding a big secret and could tell he was defensive--but when we learn the truth near the end, I was speechless. Lor is dead.

And I don't know how I didn't see that coming, because this book is all about life and death, about revival and resurrection. It's about loss and love,too. And the only negative I had about this book was how quickly Lor appears to fall for Tempest. He acts like he's almost instantly in love with her--right after she kidnaps him too. I just didn't really buy it.

But I loved the story. I loved the book. And I loved Tempest--she's cold and she's angry and she gets annoyed. She felt realistic. And this book's ending has some pretty profound things to say about life.

It's also a very feminist story. I actually did an analysis of this book just now for part of my MA degree work: It is very much the female characters who are in control of the narrative--while it's dual POV narration between Tempest (a seventeen-year-old female) and Lor, all of Lor's actions can be seen as reactions until the very end. He constantly reacts to the actions of Tempest, and so it is Tempest who is very much in control of the plot and the actions of other characters. And, at the end, when Lor does instigate his own actions (causing Tempest to be reactionary rather than active) his goal is to save the life of another character who is also female--and is the sister of Tempest, so Tempest, as the main character, is directly benefitting from the one time Lor exerts his own agency.

When you look at which characters are dead by the end of the novel, it's only some of the male characters too. Even the female characters who die during the plot are brought back to life at the end, because of the sacrifice of a male character.

When looking at it like this, it becomes clear that this is a very feminist novel (all the female characters also end up in high positions of power, if they didn't already start it), yet it wasn't until doing this analysis that I realised quite how feminist it is. Until then I'd just been enjoying it more as an entertaining YA novel!

In terms of post-colonialism, there is also a lot of discourse in this book on issues of power and economics in relation to culture. We've got different societies and cultures coming together and we see the clashes as well as the struggle the characters have as they try to decide whether to include the relics from all the cultures in their museums of the 'old world', or whether some should automatically take priority. In the end, it's decided that all cultures will be preserved in the museum, but special focus will be put on that of the previously colonised. The book ends with the colonised taking control once more, and being respected by the others.

There is also quite a bit of rhetoric on historical issues and social discourse between colonisers and the colonised--which directly linked to real-life cases, but had been subverted so it also applied to the fantasy world.

I also noticed a fair bit of characters who were 'othered' due to their appearances and origins; Tempest and Elysea were described as 'water witches' quite a bit, and interestingly, this term was only in relation to the female characters. (And, by the end, the main female characters of the book has claimed the name 'water witch' as a good thing, relating to female empowerment too).

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Review: AGAIN, AGAIN by E. Lockhart

 

Again Again by E. Lockhart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud comes a complex novel about acceptance, forgiveness, self-discovery, and possibility, as a teenage girl attempts to regain some sense of normalcy in her life after a family crisis and a broken heart.

If you could live your life again, what would you do differently?

After a near-fatal family catastrophe and an unexpected romantic upheaval, Adelaide Buchwald finds herself catapulted into a summer of wild possibility, during which she will fall in and out of love a thousand times--while finally confronting the secrets she keeps, her ideas about love, and the weird grandiosity of the human mind.

A raw, funny story that will surprise you over and over, Again Again gives us an indelible heroine grappling with the terrible and wonderful problem of loving other people.

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Oh, this book. I mean, I should know by now that E. Lockhart's books leave me feeling absolutely destroyed after (in a good way!). I've read We Were Liars and Genuine Fraud, and so I should've been prepared for what Again, Again would do to me. But I wasn't.

Like all her books, Again, Again has lyrical, beautiful prose. I listened to the audiobook (narrated by Tavia Gilbert), so I didn't actually realise until reading other reviews afterward that this book has passages that are written in verse. I LOVE novels that dip into verse every now and again, and now I'm thinking I may have to get the ebook or a paperback because of this. But the writing is just so beautiful. It's haunting. It's compelling. It's addictive.

Adelaide is seventeen years old. Her younger brother is a drug addict and in rehab. Adelaide lives with her father who teaches at her boarding school, while her mother lives elsewhere to look after the brother. And this is a complex novel of love and family, of heartbreak and loss, of hope and new beginnings.

I actually don't know what genre to classify this as. It's contemporary--but it's also an 'issue' book. It's got some thriller aspects as well as magical realism (there are talking dogs). And plus, you've got the whole time stuff. I LOVED how every so often, the narrative goes back a page or two and retells the events according to what would've happened if a character had done something different. We follow that 'pathway' until we're either back at the same scene's starting point again, or until we get to the new part where the plot divulges and there are multiple routes again. This has an affect of layers--the novel's built up on these layers, and the writing is truly amazing as, because of this layering and retelling effect, the characterisation of Adelaide and her love interest(s) are built up. Because we've got details from the other 'alternate scenes' that don't apply to the current scene/pathway, the reader knows more about Adelaide's love interest than Adelaide herself knows at any time. It's like we've got the power of hindsight--a twisted, alternate hindsight--while Adelaide is navigating her relationships. It's disorientating and dizzy to read--but it's compelling.

And Part 5 of the book has Adelaide finally go for a different love interest. And, you know what? It works--because we've seen how toxic and bad the previous relationship was (on its multiple play-throughs) her new relationship here feels healthier and more organic, even though way less page-time is dedicated to it.

There are some truly heartbreaking moments in this book. But there's also humour too. And so many of the situations Adelaide finds herself in are so, so relatable.

Like all of Lockhart's books, Again, Again left me feeling wistful afterward. It made me feel like I'd lost something huge the moment I finished it--and I was so sad that the book was over.

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Review: BROKEN PLACES & OUTER SPACES by Nnedi Okorafor

 

Broken Places & Outer Spaces by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nnedi Okorafor was never supposed to be paralyzed. A college track star and budding entomologist, Nnedi’s lifelong battle with scoliosis was just a bump in her plan - something a simple surgery would easily correct.

But when Nnedi wakes from the surgery to find she can’t move her legs, her entire sense of who she is begins to waver. Confined to a hospital bed for months, unusual things begin to happen. Psychedelic bugs crawl her hospital walls; strange dreams visit her nightly. She begins to feel as if she’s turning into a cyborg. Unsure if she’ll ever walk again, Nnedi begins to put these experiences into writing, conjuring up strange, fantastical stories.
What Nnedi discovers during her confinement would prove to be the key to her life as a successful science fiction writer: In science fiction, when something breaks, something greater often emerges from the cracks. While she may be bedridden, instead of stopping her journey Nnedi’s paralysis opens up new windows in her mind, kindles her creativity and ultimately leads her to become more alive than she ever could have imagined.

Nnedi takes the reader on a journey from her hospital bed deep into her memories, from her painful first experiences with racism as a child in Chicago to her powerful visits to her parents’ hometown in Nigeria, where she got her first inkling that science fiction has roots beyond the West. This was not the Africa that Nnedi knew from Western literature - an Africa that she always read was a place left behind. The role of technology in Nigeria opened her eyes to future-looking Africa: cable TV and cell phones in the village, 419 scammers occupying the cybercafés, the small generator connected to her cousin’s desktop computer, everyone quickly adapting to portable tech devices due to unreliable power sources. Nnedi could see that Africa was far from broken, as she’d been taught, and her experience there planted the early seeds of sci-fi - a genre that speculates about technologies, societies, and social issues - from an entirely new lens.

In Broken Places & Outer Spaces, Nnedi uses her own experience as a jumping off point to follow the phenomenon of creativity born from hardship. From Frida Kahlo to Mary Shelly, she examines great artists and writers who have pushed through their limitations, using hardship to fuel their work. Through these compelling stories and her own, Nnedi reveals a universal truth: What we perceive as limitations have the potential to become our greatest strengths - far greater than when we were unbroken

---

I came across this book when I was looking for own-voices books about disability. BROKEN PLACES & OUTER SPACERS was on a Buzzfeed List for memoirs on disability and illness, and I was immediately intrigued enough to buy the audiobook.

Nnedi Okorafor is an author of Afro-futurism SF and I've been meaning to read her fiction for so long. I had no idea that she'd experienced paralysis following what should've been routine surgery--and as someone who is also disabled, I immediately felt a connection to her. I've also been writing my own memoir and reading as many memoirs on disability and illness as I can, and I found the writing in this one so compulsive that I immediately wanted to dive back into my own memoir.

Okorafor gives a great overview of her childhood and her family, the genetic disorder she and her siblings inherited and how there was very much a 'before' and 'after' section to her life. I related to this so much, having been sporty myself before my body failed me.

This is a short read--but it covers so much. We learn how it was her disability that led her to start writing--something that she didn't think she'd have done was it not for this paralysis happening--and how her hallucinations during her initial time in hospital lured her into the speculative fiction world. We see how she's managing now as an adult, and we follow her through the difficult rehab process as a teenager.

This is a powerful read, highly recommended.

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Review: LIES LIKE POISON by Chelsea Pitcher

 

Lies Like Poison by Chelsea Pitcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Poppy, Lily, and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they discovered he was suffering abuse at the hands of his stepmother, they came up with a lethal plan: petals of poppy, belladonna, and lily in her evening tea so she’d never be able to hurt Raven again. But someone got cold feet, the plot faded to a secret of the past, and the group fell apart.

Three years later, on the eve of Raven’s seventeenth birthday, his stepmother turns up dead. But it’s only belladonna found in her tea, and it’s only Belladonna who’s carted off to jail. Desperate for help, Belle reaches out to her estranged friends to prove her innocence. They answer the call, but no one is prepared for what comes next.

Now, everyone has something to lose and something equally dangerous to hide. And when the tangled web of secrets and betrayal is finally unwound, what lies at its heart will change the group forever

--

So, when I was first getting into audiobooks, I was browsing YA thrillers on audible and I came across this one--instantly, I was hooked. I downloaded it immediately--along with a few others--and then I had technology problems and couldn't access my audiobooks! Oh no! Eventually, I sorted it out, but I'd forgotten which book this one was. All I remembered was the main characters shared names with flowers and there was murder, and I was desperately trying to work out which book it was.

So, a few months later, when I'd finished my most recent listen and clicked randomly onto this title (my audible app doesn't show book descriptions), I was delighted to realise IT WAS THIS BOOK! And this book is incredible.

Complex female characters? Yes. Complex male characters? Yes. Complex transitioning characters? Yes. LGBT relationships? Strong character voices and narrative writing? Yes. Beautiful imagery? Yes. And a plot that just grabs you right away? Yes.

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING! It's haunting and breathtaking and I could not stop listening to it. Chelsea Pitcher is now one of my favourite YA writers ever. And I must give a shoutout to the narrators too: Emmett Grosland, Emily Ellet, Amanda Dolan, and Kevin Free.

The book is told via multiple narrators and across multiple timelines. When the characters were little, Poppy, Belladonna, and Lily planned to poison Raven's evil step-mother--shortly after the murder of Raven's mother. They didn't do it. Now, the characters are 17, and Raven's just returned from the boarding school is father sent him to, to find out his step mother actually has been murdered and Belladonna's been arrested. The 'recipe' for murder that they came up with as children as apparently now been followed. Jack (previously named Poppy--and the book follows his transition) is desperate to clear Belladonna's name and ropes in Lily and Raven to help.

And this book is just so delicious. All the characters are so 3D. Lily's dark and sinister, suffering an eating disorder due to her mother's abuse. Belladonna is obsessed with fairytales--dark tales--having been adopted by a man who locked her up at night after his biological daughter was abducted. Jack has secrets of his own--from the clothes he burned on the night of Raven's step-mother's murder to his preference to be called 'Jack' and using him/his pronouns. And Raven--well, Raven is the character that haunted me the most. There's something eerie about him, namely stemming from the scene we're shown early on where as children all the characters were playing at fairy tales and he was lying 'dead' in a coffin.

So who did the murder?

Well, I must confess that I did realise who the murderer of the step-mother was quite early on. Not because all clues pointed to that person, but through process of deduction I realised it couldn't be anyone else. What I didn't expect was to find out the identity of the murderer of Raven's real mother too. That was edge-of-your-seat-stuff.

The only thing that bugged me a bit about this book was how when we're halfway through, we suddenly are introduced to narration by Raven as well. Up until that point, the narration had been told by Jack, Lily, and Belladonna only--so I did find it a little jarring.

But this is an amazing YA thriller! It's just so atmospheric and haunting and I loved it so much.

Content warnings for: abuse, eating disorders, suicidal talk.



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