Tag: Twisty

Posted on

YA Review: The Prisoner’s Throne

Title: The Prisoner’s Throne
Author: Holly Black
Edition: Hardback
Rating: 5/5

YA Review: The Prisoner's Throne

Holly Black is back, and so are Wren and Oak, and I couldn’t wait to jump back into the story and find out what happened after the cliffhanger at the end of The Stolen Heir (reviewed here).

This is a hard book to review without dropping spoilers, but I’ll do my best.

The first surprise is that The Prisoner’s Throne opens not in the Citadel, where the previous book ended, but by skipping back in time to before Oak set out on his quest in The Stolen Heir. The second surprise is the change in narrator, from Wren to Oak. Before the resolution of the story can begin, we learn what inspired Oak’s journey in The Stolen Heir, and about his self-appointed and secret role in Elfhame, protecting the High King and Queen.

Oak goes on to use his charm and determination to influence Wren and her court, and bring about a confrontation with Elfhame. Jude and Cardan make a welcome reappearance in the story, finding their loyalties tested when Oak’s clandestine activities come to light. There’s political plotting, dangerous magic, murder, poison, betrayals and family loyalties, and once again I loved it.

Giving the narration to Oak works beautifully – to balance the storytelling between the two books, to highlight the growing tension between Oak and Wren, and to give the reader more of an insight into the dangers and plots behind the scenes of the Court of Elfhame. The Stolen Heir gave us Wren’s view of Oak, and this book flips the point of view to give us Oak’s view of Wren, which can only add to the intrigue of the story, and our understanding of the characters.

Another delicious and satisfying visit to Elfhame. Five stars.

Have you read The Stolen Heir and The Prisoner’s Throne? What did you think of the change of narrator in this book? And what about Oak’s secret role in the Court of Elfhame? 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: The Prisoner’s Throne 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.

Posted on

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.

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.

Posted on

YA Review: The Stolen Heir

Title: The Stolen Heir
Author: Holly Black
Edition: Hardback
Rating: 4/5

YA Review: The Stolen Heir - Holly Black

I have been waiting for the next instalment in the story of Elfhame, and I managed to pick up a gorgeous hardback copy of The Stolen Heir on the day of release. I wasted no time finding a comfortable place to start reading, and jumped straight in.

This book did not grip me in the same way as the Folk of the Air trilogy, possibly because of the hype around its release. That said, I still enjoyed the story – and Holly Black’s trademark dark characters, plot twists, and betrayals. There are plenty of exciting twists, and plenty of delicious betrayals in this first book of an Elfhame duology.

After the events of The Queen of Nothing Suren, daughter of Lady Nore and child queen of the Court of Teeth, leaves Elfhame to find safety in the human world. Oak, heir to the throne of Elfhame, seeks her out to join him on a quest. Suren and Oak were betrothed before the the betrayals of the Battle of the Serpent, and Suren cannot be sure of his intentions. Suren has her own reasons for helping Oak, and returning to the home of her childhood nightmares. As they travel together, their constant suspicion and inability to trust each other add to the dangers they face. It’s a tense and exciting read, with Suren and the reader constantly questioning Oak’s motivations, and trying to unpick the truth from the things Oak doesn’t say.

Oak is seventeen, and utterly charming. Suren is a feral child, surviving in the woods, out of sight in the human world. Both are fae, and neither of them can lie, but they can deceive. Like Suren, I found myself constantly questioning Oak’s words, looking for loopholes and omissions in everything he said. It makes for an intensely exciting story, and the tension between the characters only increases as they approach the end of their journey. The final betrayal is exquisite, and I can’t believe I have to wait for the next book! I can’t wait to go back to Elfhame.

Have you read The Stolen Heir? What did you think of Suren and Oak? 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: The Stolen Heir 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.

Posted on

YA Review: Someone is Watching You

Title: Someone is Watching You
Author: Tess James-Mackey
Edition: Paperback ARC
Rating: 5/5

YA review: Someone is Watching You - front cover

Warning: this book is addictive! I stayed up reading past midnight three nights in a row to reach the end and find out what happened to the characters. It would make a fantastic single-afternoon binge-read.

When Nia accepts a dare from her friends to explore an abandoned prison, she plans to sneak in, grab a couple of selfies, and get out. But before long her friends are demanding more evidence of her discoveries, and her efforts to demonstrate her bravery lead her further into the dark and dangerous building. Worse – her little sister has followed her inside, and it doesn’t take long for them both to be lost in the maze of corridors and cell blocks. Nia discovers more than she had bargained for as she searches for her sister, and desperately attempts to find her way out.

This is an absolutely gripping story, infused throughout with danger, fear, and a building sense of dread. The author creates an irresistably creepy setting for the action, ramping up the tension with mysterious events, text messages from the protagonist’s friends urging her to take greater and greater risks, and the panic of a phone battery running out at just the wrong moment. Add in Nia’s terror of losing her little sister, and the lengths she is willing to go to to prove herself to her friends, and you have the recipe for a perfect, nail-biting read.

Have you read Someone is Watching You? What did you think of Nia’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!

Someone is Watching You will be published on February 2nd. Thank you to Hodder for the ARC – I loved it!

YA review: Someone is Watching You 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.

Posted on

YA Review: This Book Kills

Title: This Book Kills
Author: Ravena Guron
Edition: Kindle ARC
Rating: 4/5

YA review: This Book Kills

Are you ready for the twists and turns of this gripping boarding-school murder mystery?

Jess Choudhary feels out of place in her very white, very rich boarding school. She’s there on a scholarship, and if she breaks the rules she won’t escape with a telling-off – unlike the paying rich kids, she’ll lose her funding and be sent home. Jess is determined to succeed, to stay out of trouble, and escape the attentions of the notorious Regia Club, the school’s mysterious secret society. But when one of the richest students in school is murdered, Jess finds herself at the centre of the investigation. Whoever killed Hugh Henry Van Boren used one of Jess’s short stories as their inspiration, and the crime scene matches her description perfectly. When Jess begins receiving death threats, she realises she needs to figure out who the murderer is before she loses her scholarship, takes the blame for murder – or becomes the next victim.

It’s a brilliant premise, and a great way to start a murder mystery. There are plenty of clues woven into the story, and a whole lot of red herrings and missing pieces for Jess and her friends to puzzle over. Jess is a perfect narrator – someone smart enough to figure out what happened to Hugh, but limited in her ability to investigate the murder. She can’t afford to break any rules, and she doesn’t have many friends among the privileged rich kids. No one is beyond suspicion – staff, students and outsiders all feature in her investigation, and she uncovers plenty of scandalous secrets about her classmates as she searches for the truth.

It’s an addictive read – I found it hard to put down, and the more confusing the clues became, the more determined I was to figure out the mystery. I didn’t guess whodunnit, even though I was convinced I had solved the murder, but the ending makes perfect sense when you get there. It’s a satisfying story with an intriguing and complex setting, and Jess is an interesting and engaging narrator. Perfect if you’re looking for a new bookish obsession!

Have you read This Book Kills? What did you think of the mystery? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts! No spoilers, though – you can post those on GoodReads!

This Book Kills will be published on January 5th 2023.

YA review: This Book Kills 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.

Posted on

YA Review: Tales from the Hinterland

Title: Tales from the Hinterland
Author: Melissa Albert
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 4/5

Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood (reviewed here) and the sequel The Night Country (reviewed here) feature a world where fairytale characters are trapped in their stories, living out their plotlines over and over. The stories are collected by Althea Proserpine, the grandmother of the protagonist, into a book called Tales from the Hinterland, filled with twisted, dark plots and fascinating characters. Readers of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country hear about the characters in the stories, but never see the contents of the book – until now.

This is Althea Proserpine’s book. Twelve new fairy tales with all the raw edges, cruelty, and darkness intact – no Disney princesses here. Love, death, revenge, terrible mistakes and fairytale justice combine to give shape to the Hinterland and its residents. Most of the stories have female protagonists, and many dwell on the expectations and realities of marriage and parenthood, and the determination of the characters to overturn these expectations. The stories are at times dreamlike, beautiful, and unflinchingly horrific – dark, twisted, and deeply satisfying. Stand-out stories were ‘Hansa the Traveler’, ‘Ilsa Waits’, and ‘Twice-Killed Katherine’. If you’ve read The Hazel Wood and The Night Country, reading this book is like meeting old friends, and discovering who they really are.

Have you read Tales from the Hinterland? What did you think of the stories? Which was your favourite tale? 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.