Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood

"Cat's Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who
returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal. Elaine must come to terms with her own identity as a daughter, a lover, and artist, and woman—but above all she must seek release from her haunting memories. Disturbing, hilarious, and compassionate." 

I loved this novel to bits, and it scared me way out of my comfort zone. It was one of the most intensely revealing reflections on childhood and its impact on grown-up life I have ever encountered, simply because the story is so common, and so universal, and so typical. The idea of confronting a childhood bully with one's memories is terrifying, especially as one can never trust the mind to behave as a grown-up when confronted with deeply hidden childhood fears and wishes. 

It touched on a deeply personal aspect of my life. The desperation of trying to understand culture and social realities. The complexity of relationships between women of nearly all ages is often a difficult thing to fully comprehend let alone commit to paper. Generally, we find it easier to communicate with men. While with other women you are forever grasping at straws, unable to determine which layer of superficiality you are dealing with and which of your layers of feigned cordiality or fabricated fellow feeling may win their favour. But Atwood, the mistress of the craft that she is, has brought the private, secretive world of female bonding's alive and demolished one of the greatest pop culture stereotypes ever - that of the mean girl. 

Elaine isn't a very likable character, she does terrible things and becomes a bully in her own right but you can't help but relate to her. She is such a viscerally real person that could be any one of us. She acts believably in every situation, even if it didn't shown her in the best light.  

But Atwood, in her typical style doesn't keep to one theme. While exploring the effects of bullying, Atwood also explores the themes of womanhood and the terrible ways the girls assert dominance and how this snide womanhood follows us into adulthood. This is an exceptional novel and one that I had a difficult time setting aside. The writing is razor-sharp. Based on what I’ve read so far, it seems Atwood doesn’t gravitate towards sentimentality. It works especially well here. There’s much more than what I’ve relayed in this review – you’ll find dry humor, thoughts on marriage, feminism, aging, as well as a child’s exploration of religion. This one, along with Alias Grace, is definitely a clear favourite.

Age Rating 15+. Sex, sexuality, bullying, Adult Topics. 

A Quiet Place - Seicho Matsumoto

"While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that
his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly-spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife—who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings—ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighborhood?

When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife’s death he discovers the villa Tachibana near by, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life..."

At first I blamed the English translation for the unremarkable prose and plodding pace of the story. It couldn't be the author (who is praised for his psychological thrillers) could it? But the more I read, the more I understood that the dull writing was a deliberate device. The main character, Tsuneo Asai, is a middle-aged bureaucrat who has made it up the ladder in the ministry through circumspect behaviour and persistent hard work. He thinks almost exclusively about his job and, as a result, his life is as unexciting as the prose Matsumoto uses to describe it. Only through subtle clues do we eventually realise this fixation on work actually hides a deeper lack of emotional attachment. Asai’s wife is younger than he is; described as plain, quiet and unassuming. She copes well with her husband’s travel and work schedule, spending time with her sister and attending haiku meetings. When informed of her death, Asai is understandably curious and begins an investigation that quickly turns into an obsessive need to learn exactly what kind of life his wife had been leading. At this point, the tone of the story changes and accelerates to keep pace with Asai’s increasing loss of self-control and descent into obsessive neurosis. 

I really enjoyed that Matsumoto flipped the traditional crime structure, instead of the murder happening at the beginning  and the plot revolving around it being uncovered. Matsumoto actually has the murder happen in the middle of the book. I don't want to say to much as I think it will spoil the book. 

Overall, definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea. If you are looking for a rollicking thriller this is not it. It is tense, claustrophobic and has incredibly sparse bordering of out-right boring prose. It is definitely a book that requires the reader to be actively involved and engage in the subtle clues the prose gives you. 

Age Rating 14+ Murder, semi-sexual, injury detail. 

Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik

"Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her
father's inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold.

When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk--grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh--Miryem's fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar.

But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love."

Spinning Silver is a loose retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. I say "loose" because you will recognise certain elements from the original - turning things into gold, the importance of names, etc. - but this is a completely different story with different characters and many new plot lines. This actually disappointed me as I was looking forward to a more recognisable retelling. There's also not just one Rumpelstiltskin character, as several characters embody different aspects of the traditional imp. 

I love that it's a very pastoral fairy tale with forests and country magic. The setting of Russia, with the description of Russian foods and the heavy, oppressive snow was wonderful and made it all the more unique. The setting of the book gives it a lot of it's atmosphere, and it works very well. There are parts that follow the characters through quiet daily farming activities, but there is always magic and fear thrumming just under the surface.

I found it really interesting that Novik explored the idea of a Jewish moneylender in this Rumpelstiltskin. It was unique take and created a very clever way of making something magical into something made of a strong will, and how easily these two concepts can overlap. 

However, structurally I do have a few issues with the book. I counted no less than six different perspectives - honestly, I may have missed someone - and you have to learn the symbol/image for each character, as that is the only way you'll know whose point-of-view the book has moved to. This can get extremely confusing. Unfortunately this caused a disconnect between the characters and myself as I was unable to fully emote with them or become attached. 

Though I appreciate books with multiple layers and complex plots, I think shedding some parts of this would have only benefited it. Some chapters lean away from complex and interesting, and toward dense and confusing. Despite encountering wondrous and unexpected forms of magic, Novik's characters are neither astonished nor surprised. Their flat response evokes a perpetual sense of apathy, a problem that's exacerbated by glacial pacing, further compounded by two of the female protagonists having such similar plot lines and personalities as to feel redundant.

Spinning Silver holds all the ingredients of a magic spell and there are some truly wonderful moments, but the execution leaves one cold and unsatisfied.

Age Rating 15+. Domestic violence, murder, discrimination. 

Red Rising (#1) - Pierce Brown

"Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded
society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars liveable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so."

This was a solidly good book, so much so that I recommended it to my Dad. The plot was unique enough to be interesting, the world building unique and the writing strong and exciting. 

While you read, you will recognize many ingredients from other YA/fantasy series. The big discovery of society's true nature was reminiscent of the Matrix. The caste system is like Divergent. The Institute sorts it's students into houses like Harry Potter. The cutthroat competitions among the Golds is very like The Hunger Games with a smattering of Lord of the Flies. And the nature of the training is described as a year-long deadly game of capture-the-flag, in which the houses (all named after Roman gods) fight one another while the proctors float about them and watch from a levitating mountain called Olympus felt very Rick Riordan. 

Yet Red Rising is more than the sum of its parts. Brown manages to craft all these elements into something new, believable, exciting and surprisingly very brutal for the supposed YA tropes it consists of. I couldn't help getting swept away in Darrow's story as we follow him from the lowly life of a miner to the very heights of Olympus and there where moments that genuinely shocked me. 

The main negative that drops this books from being excellent to good  is the main character, Darrow.  He is frustratingly perfect. Average, he is most definitely not. Darrow is meant to be perfect because he's the SYMBOL OF HIS PEOPLE, he was plucked from the mires of obscurity to save his people. Unfortunately, this left him with little place to grow or develop as a character. He didn't have to struggle, he didn't feel out of place, he wasn't lagging behind. There was no tension there. He would make a fantastic face of a revolution, but in terms of characters I can get behind, root for and care about... he wasn't doing it for me. I preferred the other characters around him, such as Pax, Mustang and my favourite little murder goblin, Sevro. 

The language, while most of the time excellent, with the prose being original but not bulky, left the political language incredibly melodramatic. There was something so contrived, even scripted, about it. Like preachy political (Communist) propaganda, spoken on a clifftop with sword pointed in the air. It made me roll my eyes more often than it made me feel inspired. This is not helped by the egotistical strain of some of the writing, where Darrow, and I have a feeling Brown in extension was patting himself on the back. There is one scene in the beginning of the book, where Darrow is internal monologuing that he is the best Helldiver (drill driver) and that everyone else is too scared. Just scared dogs cowering to the Golds and only he is brave, manly and macho. I was like...Dude, you are 16...chill...I think they probably have more life experience. Maybe they are scared for a reason? hmmm?

The reason this book does work is the real sense of tension, nastiness and drama. It's easy to get caught up in the atmosphere of the story. You get the feeling throughout that the author isn't afraid to rip your heart out, shred it, and stand laughing amid the fallen pieces. Which enabled me to read on with interest and investment, despite my lack of connection to the main character. I will certainly be reading the rest of the trilogy as I think that Darrow will have more room to grow on a bigger playing field. 

However this is certainly not a YA novel. There was rape,  hints of cannibalism and a realistic brutality to the fighting that I don’t think is suitable for a younger audience. Thus...Age Rating 16+. 

My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russel

"Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a
precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood."

This book was difficult. Difficult to read, and even more difficult to determine how I felt at the end. 

How do you best write about a fictional love affair between a teacher and a 15-year-old student that is actually a predatory relationship? There are no easy answers to that question but that is what happens in My Dark Vanessa which alternates between 2000 and 2017 as we see how Vanessa Wye is groomed and then raped by her teacher Jacob Strane. We see the repercussions she must deal with as an adult who does not allow herself to realize that the relationship was, in fact abusive. We see how a child is forced to carry the responsibility the adults around her should have assumed themselves. The delicate and fraught nature of adolescence is captured well.

This book is definitely very, very well-written and the first half is well paced. There is a strong sense of place— the landscape, the sparseness. The prose is tight and careful, intimate and descriptive. The protagonist, Vanessa, is fully realized and the author does a good job of showing Vanessa’s struggle to face what she experienced. Her point of view and how it shifts over time is expertly managed and feels honest. You see how pernicious this kind of abuse is because it makes Vanessa doubt herself and lose herself and see herself, rather than the predator, as the problem. There is an interesting and relentlessly claustrophobic quality to the prose. You want to escape the quiet horror of Vanessa’s story while also wanting to see how it all ends, if she is going to be okay. You want there to be a freeing moment of clean air without knowing if you will get it.

There is some interesting cultural context developed through pop culture references, Lolita, and the #MeToo movement. I suspect we are going to see quite a few novels doing this over the next several years as writers try to distill into fiction what has been happening culturally with regard to sexual violence. There were ways the people in Vanessa’s life responded to her that were infuriating and inadequate and that is, all too often, how these things go.

The book does run too long. After about 250 pages, there is a thematic repetition that doesn’t serve the novel well. Vanessa bites her cheek constantly. It’s like, girl, is there anything left on the inside of your mouth??? Vanessa is fully realized but most of the other characters don’t get as much depth, though they really should. 

The real challenge I had with this book is that at times, the abuse felt romanticized, eroticized. It gave me pause. As a mature reader, the way the relationship is described is quietly horrifying. However I am unsure if a less mature reader would fully pick up on the horror. As the novel goes on there were so many rape scenes (and I will always call it rape because that’s what it was), that it just felt… somewhat gratuitous. And, I suspect, that’s kind of the point, that Vanessa, particularly at fifteen, was torn between love and repulsion, that she was shaped into someone who would see the situation as romantic while, with the distance as readers, we understand the situation as appalling. Strane is clearly a horrible piece of shit. Russell makes that crystal clear. But… I don’t know. Does she go far enough?

My Dark Vanessa is certainly not an easy book and I get why some readers have found it to be over the top regarding the descriptions of abuse that the main character faces. I don’t share that same opinion entirely, but there were moments when I questioned the sheer number of rape scenes that Kate Elizabeth Russell chose to include, and/or the gratuitous level of detail they held; because even without explicitly showing the brutal assaults on Vanessa’s autonomy, her “relationship” with Strane was awful and his paedophilia was always obvious to the reader, as was its effect on 15 y/o Vanessa.

Age Rating 18+. The highest rating I think I have ever given a book. This is certainly not appropriate for younger readers. 

Heroes and Villains - Angela Carter

"After the apocalypse the world is neatly divided. Rational
civilization rests with the Professors in their steel and concrete villages; marauding tribes of Barbarians roam the surrounding jungles; mutilated Out People inhabit the burnt scars of cities.

But Marianne, a Professor's daughter, is carried away into the jungle--a grotesque vegetable paradise--where she will become the captive bride of Jewel, the proud and beautiful Barbarian."

I haven't read anything close to this book. Possibly the closest is Kundera's "Unbearable Lightness of Being." They share the same brutal isolated tone and sex is a main theme in both. But other then that they share nothing. Heroes and Villain's is stunningly unique, in content and writing style. It sucks you in and leaves you reeling. Truly an excellent novel. 

However, it certainly isn't an easy read. As said above it is brutal, but it is also twisted and dark. The themes that it covers ranges from abusive relationships, rape, abuse, toxic co-dependency, the break down of society, religion and the viciousness of the human spirit. 

If you come into the book expecting it to be structured like a normal novel with a likeable protagonist and clear goal you will be disappointed. Marianne is a terrible women. As vicious and brutal as Jewel. Heroes and Villains is dreamlike, brutal and beautifully twisted. Gothic fantasy storytelling at its finest. Marianne and Jewel are two incredibly compelling characters, who I loved, despite disliking them very much. They are less characters and more symbols. They are tools with which Carter uses to construct certain arguments and contrasts. The writing is so so beautiful. Full of full bodied prose. Even when describing awful things, it envelopes you in the cloying atmosphere of the story. There is such a strong sense of place even with minimal world building. 

As a reader I enjoyed the progression of Jewel and Marianne's relationship, this unlikely romance, if you can call it that,  that would go sour in some places and then pick up again when you least expected it. It was so human yet so primal. Their story is symbolically underpinned by the Adam and Eve mythos, and this also handsomely features in the form of a grotesque tattoo on Jewels torso of the scene where Eve offers Adam the forbidden fruit. In fact, Jewel is somewhat of a synthetic messiah; a puppet controlled by the ominous 'Doctor'; a madman who is trying to fabricate his own religion using members of the savage tribe. Jewel with his imposing physique and handsome looks doubles as Adam, Jesus and other religious characters. This aggressive reliance on each other, the love and hate sitting side by side was an interesting dynamic. It is definitely the best representation of an unhealthy relationship I have read. 

I really enjoy dark novels that deal with mature content, contemplate the human condition and what we can do to each other. However there were moments in this book that genuinely disturbed me and I am unsure if where entirely necessary or handled in the best way possible.  Marianne gets raped by Jewel, but it is so offhanded and quickly dealt with. Marianne isn't even very angry at him for it and she doesn't seem to suffer any emotional consequences. If fact she goes on to marry him and have a lot more sex. I just... 

Another scene that really got to me is the scene in which Marianne rapes a mentally unwell 13 year old boy. I am sorry but why was this scene necessary. I understand that Carter was exploring the human condition but what did this scene bring to the overall story. If the point was to shock me it sure did that well. 

Age Rating 16+. A brutal novel. 

We Hunt the Flame (1#) - Hafsah Faizal

"Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves
the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. Both Zafira and Nasir are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya--but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds--and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine."

I was so keen on this book but it unfortunately falls flat. The main thing carrying this story is definitely the Arabic representation. It just gives the story a lush and cultural feel that is much needed in the book world. Had you taken that away.... 

The writing is very good. I never felt bored. I related to the characters and was enveloped in the world and there was some genuinely great prose. It was only after reading the book did I realise there wasn't much to actually be enveloped in. It was a great quick fantasy romp with no deeper pull. 

The full promise of We Hunt the Flame is swallowed by an overreliance on clichés. Once the main arc disengages fully from the shadows, it turns out to be fairly standard for a fantasy novel: A long-lost artifact to retrieve. The threat of dark magic hanging over everything like a shawl. Evil sources scheming. Enemies turning reluctant allies. Everyone is, of course, burdened by a tragic backstory with the always necessary brooding Prince and quippy side kick. 

The bare-boned plot of We Hunt the Flame meanders towards a conclusion that doesn't pack as much suspense as it could. Zafira’s quest is utterly non-earth-shaking, and the novel often shies away from the full impact of the magical stakes, and as a result, some of the grander moments were robbed of gravitas.

Not only does the plot come late, but it also felt like the story was making the deliberate decision not to raise too many questions about the worldbuilding in order to focus, instead, on the character arcs which weren’t even that gripping to begin with. If you decide to have a character-driven plot, please actually make me know the characters. They all started to care for each other for no reason. The bonding was so sudden. 

This was all bad enough but what had lowered my spirit still further is the fact that I picked up this book expecting a story grounded in a stellar Arabian setup, unfortunately, We Hunt the Flame doesn't linger there long. Too much of the world is glossed over, or left naggingly blank. As for the characters of We Hunt the Flame, they are a collection of stereotypes that we oftentimes see in YA books. I did enjoy Altair and his quippy banter though, but it wasn't original. Most of them are only special to the extent they serve a purpose, and once that purpose is met, they are no longer needed.

If you want to read a wonderful Arabic inspired fantasy I would instead direct you to City of Brass by S.A Chakraborty or even And I Darken by Kiersten White. 

Age Rating 14+. Some cringy teenage make out sessions, death and torture.