Tag: Survival

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YA Review: Strange Gods

Title: Strange Gods
Author: Alison Kimble
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: Strange Gods

This was a fun read. Spooky is the disappointing younger daughter of two high-powered lawyers, sent to a summer camp for troubled teens when she almost gets her perfect sister into trouble. Rules at the camp are strict, and punishments are tailored to keep each individual in line. When Spooky sneaks out of her cabin at night to meet a boy, she manages to hide from the camp counsellors, but finds herself caught up instead in the secret activities of a meddling god. Realising this could give her a way out of the camp, she agrees to help the strange and powerful creature.

While the book begins as an engaging teen-at-harsh-summer-camp story, it quickly evolves into a much larger adventure. Spooky finds herself crossing between worlds as she tries to protect the Earth from a divine invasion. With her unlikely companions – hostile teens from the camp who also stumble onto the god’s activities – she undertakes a cosmic scavenger hunt, locating items of value to trade with other gods and buy their support for her quest.

Spooky is a smart, sassy teenager, rejected by her parents and searching for someone who sees her value. Carcass, the god she discovers, offers recognition and protection – as well as some unpleasant threats if she doesn’t follow his commands. Her relationships with the other teens develop and grow as they make their way from world to world, uncovering each other’s secrets and learning who they can trust.

I won’t spoil the ending, but there is a hint that a sequel might be in the works. While this book works as a standalone story, I’d love to know what happens next!

Have you read Strange Gods? What did you think of Spooky’s story? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Strange Gods cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Girl Island

Title: Girl Island
Author: Kate Castle
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 5/5

YA Review: Girl Island

Wow – this book is good! It’s a female take on Lord of the Flies with strong Yellowjackets vibes. With a smaller cast and a much more focused story than Yellowjackets, I found it more convincing as an exploration of inter-personal dynamics in an all-female group. Full disclosure: I went to a single-sex school in the 1990s, around the time the book is set, so I am very familiar with the power and personality clashes in an all-female environment. This book captures them perfectly.

Ellery is farm girl. She’s keeping her family’s struggling fruit farm running after the death of her father, supporting her mother and younger brother as they all take on the extra work to keep the business going. She’s also an athletics star, and British Under-18 Heptathlon champion. When her achievements win her a full scholarship to an exclusive private school, she reluctantly accepts the mid-term switch to being the new girl, the scholarship girl, and the student who goes home at night to her beloved farm with its mis-matched furniture and make-do-and-mend lifestyle.

The scholarship includes an all-expenses-paid trip to an elite sports camp in the Maldives, and her first experience of her new school is the flight to Male with her new PE teacher and seven of her classmates – two boys and five girls. It doesn’t take long for her to discover the rift between the popular girls with the good-looking boyfriends, and the more academic Delia Dawkes. And then there’s the awkward reunion with Skye, the ex-best friend she hasn’t seen for two years. Plenty of opportunity for inter-personal conflict.

Of course, the trip doesn’t go to plan. The island-hopper plan crashes, leaving the party a long way off course and marooned on a deserted island. Dawkes and Ellery focus on long-term survival, including keeping their injured teacher alive, while the popular girls are more concerned with power, and their place in the hierarchy of the group. It’s a recipe for conflict and disaster, and when the boys head off to swim to the neighbouring island, the female power-plays become more vicious, and more dangerous.

The author brilliantly captures the dynamics of an all-girl group. The popular girls are used to being at the top of the group hierarchy, but when they find themselves in a situation that requires a different set of skills, they are ready to fight to maintain power. Ellery and Dawkes, used to being on the sidelines of all-female interactions, find themselves offering the solutions the girls need, but meeting resistance as they challenge the established social structure. I was impressed by the portrayal of the popular girls before and after the departure of their boyfriends. While their priority is keeping their man and the associated status, they exhibit a particular set of behaviours, but in the absence of the boys, they become much more focused on their own roles in the group – and much more dangerous.

As the book progresses, and the girls remain stranded, the tension on the island increases. The power-plays become more extreme as the need for sustainable survival strategies becomes more apparent, and the group splits under the pressure. Ellery finds friendship as well as conflict, and it is wonderful to follow the positive relationships as they develop in spite of the danger. It’s an entirely believable story, and the narrator’s fear feels very real. There are deliberate nods to Lord of the Flies in the plot, but you don’t need to know the original story in order to appreciate this book.

Plenty of readers have asked how the Lord of the Flies scenario would change if the marooned children were girls, not boys. This book provides a highly plausible, equally disturbing answer. I loved it.

Have you read Girl Island? What did you think of Ellery’s experiences? Would you survive on Girl Island? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

YA review: Girl Island cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: As Good As Dead

Title: As Good As Dead (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #3)
Author: Holly Jackson
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 5/5

The final book in the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy was a must-read for me. I enjoyed the first two books, and I was looking forward to meeting schoolgirl detective Pip Fitz-Amobi, her boyfriend Ravi, her wonderfully supportive family, and the residents of Little Kilton again for another investigation.

Pip isn’t intending to investigate another local mystery. She’s heading to university in Cambridge at the end of the summer, and she is still haunted by memories of her two previous cases. But when she unearths a connection between events in Little Kilton and a convicted serial killer, she can’t resist digging deeper.

Throughout the book her relationship with Ravi continues to develop, and they make an adorable couple. It is wonderful to see the friends she’s made, and the people she’s helped during her investigations come together to support her – but she’s made enemies as well as friends, and her list of local suspects keeps growing.

The case quickly becomes personal, and the stakes are higher than ever as Pip works to connect the fragments of evidence and find out what really happened – and who is threatening her as she goes public with another true-crime podcast.

I’ve enjoyed all three books in the series, but this is definitely the best. We are drawn into Pip’s investigation, and to the danger she faces. There are some truly heart-pounding scenes, and plenty of tension, deception, and eureka moments. Pip’s reactions to her previous cases and the lasting trauma she carries with her feel real – she’s not a hard-boiled detective, and we never lose sight of the fact that she’s still a teenager, at the very beginning of her adult life. As she unearths evidence, she is also discovering which adults, and which authority figures, can be trusted – and who has something to hide.

You’ll need to read the first two books in order to understand the context for this story, but the series is perfect for binge reading. Highly recommended!

Have you read As Good As Dead? What did you think of the final book in the series? Do you want more from Pip, or are you happy that the story ends here? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

Review cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: Wonderland

Title: Wonderland
Author: Juno Dawson
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 4/5

A retelling of Alice in Wonderland with a transgender narrator and a cast of rich kids enjoying sex, drugs, and murder at London’s most exclusive party.

Alice is trying to fit in at her very expensive girls’ school. She’s the first transgender girl at St Agnes, and outside the staff room no one is supposed to know. She’s also the daughter of a successful novelist, so her New Money background sets her apart from the Old Money heiresses in her classes. When her friend Bunny goes missing, Alice discovers an invitation to Wonderland among her belongings. With no idea what she is heading into, and armed only with a credit card and a designer disguise, Alice uses the invitation. She throws herself down the rabbit hole and into an exclusive Old Money world where anything can happen, and the usual rules don’t apply.

Wonderland is an extravagant party. Alice feels like an outsider from the start, hiding behind her disguise and trying to look as if she was invited. People keep judging her on her outfit, trying to work out who she is and whether she is on the guest list, and she constantly invents lies to justify her presence. As she explores the party, always looking for Bunny, Alice meets some familiar characters – a top-hatted boy at a drug-laced tea party, twins who spike her drink and try to assault her in a hot tub, another gatecrasher dressed as a cat who keeps turning up when she needs help, and the Red Queen, who controls everything at her own private party.

Alice’s anxiety about being discovered as an imposter in Wonderland parallels her anxiety about being outed at school. The tricks she plays at the party – with clothes, her avoidance of questions, and avoiding detection – mirror the measures she takes in real life to keep anyone from questioning her gender. Alice is right to be concerned – Wonderland is a dangerous place, and her secrets are not as safe as she believes. But Wonderland is also a place of freedom from everyday rules, and Alice finds acceptance as well as threats at the party. The two consensual sexual encounters in the book affirm her gender, and demonstrate other people’s acceptance of the body she is trying to change. Her partners are kind, attractive, and attracted to her, even when she feels self conscious and out of step with her physical appearance.

This retelling of a familiar story as a fable about identity, navigating written and unwritten rules, and finding your value when other people want to exclude you. It is an effective use of the Alice in Wonderland concept, with the dream-logic of the original mirrored in the drug-fueled, alternative reality of the party. Alice is an engaging narrator – smart, funny, and determined to claim her place in the world without apologising for who she is. It’s a refreshing, affirming read, with a relatable transgender narrator and positive portrayals of characters of a range of genders, sexualities, races, and class backgrounds. Like Alice after the party, I’m still trying to process everything that happened, and how I feel about it. There’s a lot going on here, and the themes will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt as if they didn’t fit in. A feel-good book about assault, discrimination and murder? Anything’s possible when you fall down the rabbit hole …

Have you read Wonderland? What did you think of the story? Do you think it worked as a reimagining of Alice in Wonderland? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

Review cross-posted to GoodReads.

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YA Review: The Girls I’ve Been

Title: The Girls I’ve Been
Author: Tess Sharpe
Edition: Paperback ARC
Rating: 5/5

Probably my favourite read of the last twelve months, this book has everything. A fast-paced, thrilling plot; interesting, engaging characters; a clever and intriguing back story for the protagonist; and some genuine, how-are-they-going-to-get-out-of-this peril.

The setup is simple. Nora is seventeen. She’s spent most of her life helping her con-artist mother to target rich criminal men in a succession of scams, but now she’s trying to live a normal life with her sister. By page two of the book she finds herself held hostage in a bank heist, along with her best friend (and ex-boyfriend) Wes, and her new girlfriend Iris. She’s used to running cons with her mother in charge, and there’s always a plan and an escape route – but there’s no plan for escaping from the bank, and nothing in place to protect the people she cares about.

The bank heist turns into a battle of wits between the men with guns, and Nora and her friends. There’s a running tally at the start of each chapter of the plans that have worked or failed, and a list of the items they’ve collected that might help them, building the tension as the story progresses. Running alongside the chapters set in the bank are flashback chapters detailing the scams Nora has taken part in, and the girls she’s had to become to con the targets.

Nora’s experiences as the smiling Rebecca, demure Samantha, religious Hayley, smart Katie, and athletic Ashley have taught her how to read other people, how to understand what they want, and how to manipulate them. They have also taught her to be brave, daring, and protective of her friends. If she can figure out what the bank raiders are looking for, maybe she can save herself and the other hostages.

There isn’t a wrong step or a weak chapter in this book. The danger keeps coming – both in the bank chapters and the flashbacks – and Nora needs all her experiences and determination to stay calm, and look for a way out. Without the flashback chapters, the bank heist would be an exciting story. Without the bank heist, Nora’s backstory would be harrowing and traumatic. Bringing the two plotlines together is a genius move, keeping the reader’s attention on Nora while the hostage situation plays out around her. Both plots are utterly gripping, and together they build Nora’s complex character, explaining who she is and how she got there.

I loved every minute of this book, and I couldn’t put it down. I’m going to be recommending it everywhere!

The Girls I’ve Been will be published on January 26th. Thank you to Hachette for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Have you read The Girls I’ve Been? What did you think of the story? Did you find yourself sympathising with Nora? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

Review cross-posted to GoodReads.

Please keep your comments YA appropriate. Be patient! We want to hear from you, but comments are moderated, and may take some time to appear.