Leopold Blue - Rosie Rowell - Guest Book Review

Published by Hot Key Books

Guest review by Susan Maclean

I do like books aimed at Young Adults (which I hope this was), but I am not sure that it’s supposed audience will make it a best seller.  It’s well written, the descriptions of the area of South Africa where the book is set are good enough for you to “see” what it’s like, and none of the characters are two dimensional.  

But. I couldn’t empathise much with Meg who is 15, full of hormones, and really does not fit in at school in her little township.  Her mother Vivvy, English, married for love and now stuck in the middle of a rural and changing SA,  has views about politics which don’t sit well with Meg, and her class-mates’ parents.  She is also on a campaign to inform black farm workers about AIDs, which was rife at the time Mandela came to power when this book is set.  Meg cannot understand why her mother would be out on the farms every Sunday, telling workers about condoms, bodily fluids and the like when she should be home with her family. Meg’s Mum cannot understand why Meg feels this way, and why Meg's so angry with her.

Into Meg’s life comes  Zanthe, who sits next to her at school, and whom the headmistress wants Meg to take under her wing.  Zanthe, with cat’s eyes.  Zanthe, who doesn’t give a stuff about anyone.  Zanthe, who surely dyes her hair black as her eyes are blue.  Zanthe, who wants to be naughty.  Zanthe, who takes to calling Meg, “Madge”.

If you are a teen, you will probably know exactly how Meg feels.  And if you are a teen, you will certainly know how it feels to be embarrassed by your parents, how that first crush feels, how no-one understands you. But I am not so sure you will put this book in the “best I have ever read category”.  You may find, as I did, that it is rather slow, and that you expected the bad things to be bigger and more shocking than they were. 

Many thanks to Susan for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library. Susan blogs at Mac-Adventures (with Books!)

New England Rocks - Christina Courtenay

I've previously read one of this author's historical fiction titles, Highland Storms, which was a really enjoyable, well written period adventure and romance. I like to read a young adult novel from time to time, as I enjoy a nice variety in my reading matter! This is Christina Courtenay's first novel for young adults, and it is the first in a trilogy all to be set in New England.

Rain Mackenzie is expelled from Blakeborough boarding school in England and travels to join her wealthy parents where they currently live, in a small town north of Boston in New England. They hope to teach her a lesson after her exploits at her previous school where she was found in the boys dormitory surrounded by empty tequila bottles, by sending her to the local school, Northbrooke High, and bringing her down to earth. She is intent on not enjoying it at Northbrooke High, determined to keep to herself and not get involved with anyone. After all, she thinks she won't be there long. However, her opinion starts to waver when she gets to know fellow student and musician Jesse Devlin a little better. Despite a definite attraction between the pair, there's a complication because Jesse is already attached, and his girlfriend Amber isn't at all keen on Rain spending any time with him. The story follows Rain's time settling in at the school and getting to know Jesse. 

I thought this was an easy, enjoyable, fun and undemanding read, with a sweet storyline, featuring an independent, sassy heroine and a troubled, sensitive and handsome hero. It was an escapist read, and the development of friendships and romance were nicely portrayed. The author writes with a compassion for her characters, and captures the high school environment with its cliques and rivalries. I enjoyed the bonding day episode when the kids went out into the forest. I felt perhaps the outcome was a little easy to guess at, but I was glad that it concluded the way it did. Rain developed as a character, moving from her initial disgruntlement at finding herself thrust into a new school in another country, to an acceptance and even appreciation of the new people she meets, and happiness at how things turn out. There's a lot more to Jesse than initially meets the eye, and his tougher background is in stark contrast to Rain's privileged upbringing. There's some highlighting of the contrasts between the UK and USA, in terms of language and cultural comparisons; I'd have liked a bit more of this, and I'd have loved a little more about the New England setting and landscape.

Overall New England Rocks is a fairly quick read and an enjoyable teenage tale with heart, and I'd be keen to see what the author does in the next book in this series; in the meantime, I'll be hoping to read some of her other historical fiction.

Published by Choc Lit

Thanks to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and give an honest review.

You can find the author on twitter @PiaCCourtenay  and visit her website here.

You can read the prologue and first chapter on the Choc Lit website here. 

Freaks Like Us - Susan Vaught

‘There’s no running away from what’s in your own head.’

This is the story of three friends, one of whom, seventeen-year-old Jason Milwaukee, is the first person narrator. Sunshine goes missing and the mystery of the story is in trying to resolve where she is and why she has disappeared, with Jason struggling to remember what she had said to him before she disappeared, her voice fighting with the other, overpowering voices in his head.

Jason, who is telling the story here, is SCZI - schizophrenic. Sunshine is SM - selectively mute, and Drip (Derrick) has ADHD. Collectively they, and others like them who suffer mental illnesses tagged by such initials, refer to themselves as ‘alphabets’. As Jason’s father explains to FBI Agent Mercer, ‘”It’s a word Jason and Sunshine and Derrick use to describe themselves as a group. It feels better to them than any of the disorder-disability talk.”’

Jason often refers to his mother and father by their professional ranks of the colonel and the captain. His parents divorced when he was twelve and when we meet him he is living with his father. Jason is also referred to as “Freak” and tells Agent Mercer frankly: “Everybody calls me that. You can.”

The tension builds in the story as the hours go by since Sunshine has been gone. Susan Vaught's writing feels compassionate and honest in dealing with mental health in teenagers, how it feels to them to be different, to be classed as SED - Severely Emotionally Disturbed. The author is a practicing psychologist. She conveys the intensity of the struggle to deal with his affliction throughout every waking moment, through Jason’s hurried speech and transcribing the talk he hears from all of the different, competing voices in his head – the style of writing reflects the chaos of Jason’s mind and thoughts and the voices. Some of the thoughts they tell him are very negative and cruel: ‘He knows it’s your fault. He knows you’re an idiot. Fool on the hill. Fool on the hill. He’s got cold eyes. Why does he have cold eyes? He’s probably a serial killer.’

The author is careful to make it clear that he is not his illness; at one point he is talking and realizes these aren’t his thoughts but the thoughts of the voices he hears;

‘I hate it when I sound like my alphabet voices.

I hate it when I smear together like a wet photograph and get all sticky and can’t tell the crazy voices from my own voice and what I’m seeing now from what I saw before and what I want to see now and what I wanted to see before and –‘

His frustration at his real thoughts being clouded and hidden sometimes by everything else that is going on in his mind is difficult for him to bear.

I found this an unsettling and difficult read at times; some of the images Jason sees are a bit disturbing and the constant reminders of the cruel and confused voices littered throughout the text make for an uneasy read. But this is the author’s point; this is conveying the illness and the realities of what Jason endures. I’m glad the author attempted to portray this as it is. Anyone who has suffered or had experience of a mental illness will likely feel a resonance with this story, as will many compassionate readers who haven’t.

Throughout the story I found myself liking Jason and admiring him for who he is. I felt very sad and frustrated for him at times, when he was being bullied, or misunderstood by those who don’t know him, or when his unusual behaviour attracts unjustified suspicions that he might be guilty. Most sad of all was when he couldn’t reach inside his mind and find the memories and thoughts that he really needed, the clues that would help him understand about Sunshine, because the voices keep getting in the way, causing confusion. His deep affection and respect for Sunshine is evident throughout. I was so glad the three of them – Jason, Sunshine and Drip - had had each other’s friendship and understanding. It’s very clear that, as Jason observes, 'Some days life makes more sense than other days.'

The shift in the relationship between FBI Agent Mercer and Jason as the story progresses was very nicely done I thought. As he emerges with new understanding and consideration for Jason, so too does the reader.

A poignant, honest and distinctive young adult mystery novel with frank insights into mental health. 

Published by Bloomsbury Childrens Books

Walk Me Home - Catherine Ryan Hyde

This moving story had me intrigued and asking questions straight away; who are Carly and Jen, why are they walking such a long way, just the two of them, so young? What has happened? Who is Teddy and why is Carly so determined that he is the one to help them?

Sisters Carly, 16, and Jen, 12, have set off from New Mexico and are trying to get to Teddy in California. They soon become hungry and tired, and it becomes increasingly difficult for them to continue and to stay safe and not risk it being discovered that they are on the run alone together; the threat of being taken in by the authorities and potentially separated keeps them walking and reluctant to reveal the reality of their situation to anyone. 

Then the novel takes a step back further in time, a few months earlier, and we meet Teddy, their mother's ex-boyfriend, and we meet the girls' mother, and their recent past slowly reveals itself. The sisters have had a difficult, unsettled childhood and experienced much disappointment; and now their world has been turned upside down. They travel so many miles, struggling along together, desperate and starving at times, and as I read, I feared for them, but I was also heartened by the kindnesses that they encountered from people too. 

It is primarily Carly whose thoughts we follow, and it's a very emotional as well as physical endurance test that she goes through on her journey. It is very clear that she has lost her trust in others and lost her belief in her self, and her self worth; she has convinced herself that she doesn't matter and that 'everyone likes Jen better'.  As I read, I willed things to change for the better for Carly because she had been so strong, I didn't blame her for having lost trust in people because of her past treatment, but she needed to take the risk of trusting again; the story illustrates how sometimes we have a new, unexpected chance for happiness in life and it is the ability to let go of fear and accept this chance, to take the risk of trusting again, that we need. This was such an important theme running through this story; who can the girls trust and believe in, who has their real interests and welfare at heart, who isn't all that they seem to be, and who cares more than they realise. 

I've really enjoyed novels by Catherine Ryan Hyde in the past and I found in this new book the same warm-hearted and honest portrayal of people who find themselves facing the challenge of coping with huge difficulties and setbacks in their lives that I have admired before. She creates rounded characters, and the relationships they share feel very real; I cared about the sisters. The author has sensitively and thoughtfully incorporated a little of Native American culture into this story, and created two special characters in particular that I would love to meet. The sense of place was well conveyed, and this setting was important too, the intense heat of the desert landscape adding to the struggle as the girls were walking. 

I liked the author’s note at the end of the book that clarified an aspect of the story that I had wondered about whilst reading. I think this novel would be really enjoyed by young adult and adult readers. 

I felt this was an engrossing, well-paced story about being honest with yourself and having to admit to the truth, and learning to accept kindness from unexpected places. It is about loss, loyalty, truth, courage, and the hard decisions people have to make, the strength we have to find sometimes even when we are only a young age.  

Published by Black Swan, July 18th 2013

Thanks very much to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance ebook copy of this novel via netgalley. 

You can visit the author's website here find her on facebook here or follow her on twitter @cryanhyde

Silenced - Simon Packham

'That's when it hit me: a sadness so overwhelming it felt like all the lights in the universe were going out.'

Chris narrates this story throughout, addressing his words directly to his best friend Declan, who has just died in a car crash. The two of them had evidently been inseparable friends; they had been a comedy double act together, with dreams of appearing at the Edinburgh Festival one day. One cherished episode of the sitcom they created together is all that is left now.

After a while, the novelty of Chris’s silence wears off amongst his peers, with only Ariel and new boy Will spending any time with him. Ariel, together with her mother, lives a kind of alternative lifestyle that acknowledges an awareness of the world and its resources. She realises there is something Chris is keeping to himself with regard to Declan and his death, and as Chris gets to know Ariel more, he realises that, as Ariel says, 'Declan was full of surprises.' Will however encourages Chris into dangerous actions to try and escape from himself and his silence, to stop him from dwelling on Declan and his death.

Chris loses the power to speak, enduring a selective mutism – leaving those around him, and the reader, wondering what exactly has caused this in Chris? We learn how low and despondent he feels; 'As if a black cloud of my own making was parked permanently above my head. All I knew was that I'd done something terrible; something so terrible, I simply wasn't ready to face it yet. And even in my head, I was about a million miles away from being able to put it into words.'

What is the secret that he is so scared to divulge? Why does he carry blame for what happened to his best friend? What passed between them? Will he be able to speak up? I felt intrigued and compelled to read on and understand Chris, to discover his feelings and his reasoning.

The author handles this subject well, exploring the enormous feelings of grief and loss that Chris is carrying with him. I felt the language and style of a teenage boy was well captured and employed by the author to create an authentic character of that age.

This is a story that readers both young and old could get something out of. It is moving and explores death and guilt sensitively but openly. I will be looking out for this author’s other books.  

Published by Piccadilly Press

Thanks to the publisher for kindly sending a copy of this novel to read and give an honest review.


You can find out more about the author here.

Cold Light - Jenn Ashworth

A dark, bleak, tragic tale of three fourteen-year-old girls in a northern town in the late nineties, with them delving into the adult world and getting hurt and damaged. There is a flasher around, and girls in the town are on their guard. Laura, known as Lola as a teenager, values her friendship with Chloe, despite it’s difficulties, because she now has someone to hang out with, someone she likes being in the company of. But when Chloe starts seeing Carl, in his late twenties, and when she also becomes more friendly with another girl at school, Emma, Laura experiences jealousy and wishes things could be like they were before. Laura is the first person narrator and so it’s through her eyes that we see everything, and it’s her thoughts that we are privy to. Thoughts about her schooldays, her life at the time all the things happen involving Chloe, Carl, Emma and herself, her relationship with her mother and father, and her thoughts now, in her twenties, looking back on that period of her life, as a new event occurs that relates to that time in her past.

Despite the grim premise and storyline, and the undisputedly sad turn of affairs, this is an intriguing read and I found it compelling. It is tense and atmospheric, and I was very drawn in by the voice of Laura narrating the story. I had to know what had happened. It’s a clever novel with all-too-true observations about how teenage girls are still young girls with immaturities and naiveties on the one hand, but on the other they are creeping ever closer to the adult world, discovering the disappointments and realities of life, trying alcohol and sex, and the line between the two worlds of adolescence and adulthood becomes blurred like here, where their experiences tip over into that adult world and they find it can be a very dark, cruel place. It’s also about how someone can affect the lives of others, whether knowingly or unknowingly. I love the author’s writing style, and I think I liked this novel even more than her first, A Kind of Intimacy. Looking forward to her next book.


4/5