The Bridge of Clay - Markus Zusak

"Our mother was dead. Our father had fled.

Five Dunbar brothers are living – fighting, loving, grieving – in the perfect chaos of a house without grown-ups.

This is a family rocked by tragedy and long buried secrets. To understand his family’s story, Matthew Dunbar must travel to find three things. A lost typewriter -- A dead dog -- The bones of the snake that killed it.

He will learn of a mother who crosses continents for a new home; of a father searching for love in the keys of an old piano; and, finally, of a brother named Clay, who will make the most challenging journey of them all, and change their lives for ever."

A stunning book from a prose point of view, however disappointing when it came to plot. 

It contains poignant and brilliant writing, this story is messy and complicated and raw. I can feel every ounce of tears, hope, frustration, dedication, doubt, and love.

It tackles topics like how to make a home with those who surround you, what it truly takes to extend forgiveness, that family means those you love and who love you in return, the overwhelming grief of losing someone who is simply extraordinary, the shy but steady feelings that can only belong to a first love, and most importantly, the unwavering and unbreakable bond between brothers.

I'm still sitting with my thoughts trying to figure out how I feel. I liked how focused it was on the characters and there was a moment where I felt brought close to tears by something that occurred or a descriptive passage. Or found myself grinning at the joyful bond between brothers. Unfortunately though, I wanted more from the plot and I felt like things just kept getting unnecessarily dragged out. The plot is very sparse yet highly confusing. It felt like a story that kept getting tangled up in nonsense and wasn't ever untangled. Thematically it was confused and never really settled on what it wanted to say or committed to saying anything. While it was written unbelievably beautifully, it didn't say anything to me. I wanted to love it, but ended up feeling mixed about it as a whole. 

Age Rating 17+ Suicide, slow death from cancer, sex. 

The Mallen Girl - Catherine Cookson

"Even as a child Barbara was beautiful, but as her beauty grew, so
did the affliction which shadowed it—she was becoming more and more deaf. Yet living in her silent world, she was protected from the knowledge which might otherwise have destroyed her—the secret of her own origins."

Why is it that I always seem to find and read a Catherine Cookson when my life is in flux? I never seek them out, they just present themselves when I can't find any other books. 

First of all, I didn't realise this was the second book in a series so I didn't quite understand the dramatic backstory or the dynamics between the older characters but it didn't inhibit my enjoyment of the book too much. 

This book was so highly melodramatic...I am just speechless. It was like watching a car crash with a sound track of a Chinese OST, so I kind of enjoyed it from that level. I enjoyed the character of Barbara because of her wildness and passion, but what is it about Cookson always making her female characters so thoroughly unlikable and unrelatable? I didn't care for Barbara one bit. It held my attention because it kept me waiting for her to learn her lesson or get a good damn hiding but not once do you get anything like that. She happily swans through life, everyone excusing her horrific behaviour merely because she is deaf and then when she finally steps over the line everyone feels sorry for HER. She gets to play for the sympathy vote while being read to in bed after dramatically running of into the hills to freeze to death and everyone's worked their butts off find her. I mean ....please, can someone just slap this women. 

The only romance I got invested in was that of the Governess "Bridgie" and uncouth Master of the house. The dynamic between Bridgie's ideas of decorum, breeding and civility being impinged upon by this loud, brash, outspoken man who she has to realise is actually a wonderful, kind person despite it all was excellent and deeply entertaining. That being a "Gentleman" doesn't make some one a gentle man. However this romance had very little page time. The second romance between Barbara and Dan was plain awful. She marries him because she can't have the man she wants and he is just kind of there and procced to mope through the entire wedding....just why?

Age Rating 17+ Quite a few mentions of rape.

The Song Dog - James McClure

"A unique mystery series that focuses not only on fascinating crimes,
but also on the evils of apartheid in South Africa. When Lieutenant Tromp Kramer joins forces with brilliant Bantu Detective Sergeant Mickey Zondi to investigate an accidental murder, they are confronted by the mysterious and legendary Song Dog."

I actually enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. As a South African myself, this story was a little close to home at times. The story is set in the early 60's in Apartheid era South Africa, yet written in the 90's, and the language used by the white people and their attitudes towards the coloured people in the story made me wince. In the guise of a crime story it lays bare the horrifying way that Apartheid worked to enslave, discount and dehumanise the black population of the country at that time.

The story is full of hysterical, colourful characters and enough twists and turns to keep me reading right to the end. It may sound odd given the plot and the time and place in which it is set, but it is also very funny in places. Kramer's lassie-faire attitude, one of the Sergeants constantly wears ruby socks even with is Police Uniform and the witty one liners. I laughed out loud at some points. Some section truly reminded me of home. The growing respect between the black and white detectives working together is paced well and the story creates a wonderful sense of time and place. I thought Zondi was also an amazingly interesting character. His is fight to except his tribal root yet also his own casual racism towards other black people due to being raised in a white missionary school certainly reflected the internal hatred that Apartheid created. 

Of course while certainly ahead of its time in the 90's, the book is by no means perfect in it's race portrayal. The discounting/laughing at tribal ways, the agreement of the general stupidity of black people, the absence of any female characters, the lack of black character's other then Zondi all showed how far we have come and still need to go.

The crime itself isn't knock out but still kept me engaged and I definitely didn't guess who the perp was. What this book really excels at is creating an understanding of the situation without getting didactic. 

Age Rating 17+. Sex, heavily racist language, violence. 

Holy Fools - Joanne Harris

"In the year 1605, a young widow, pregnant and alone, seeks sanctuary
at the small Abbey of Sainte Marie-de-la-mer on the island of Noirs Moustiers off the Brittany coast. After the birth of her daughter, she takes up the veil, and a new name, Soeur Auguste. But the peace she has found in remote isolation is shattered five years later by the events that follow the death of her kind benefactress, the Reverend Mother.

When a new abbess -- the daughter of a corrupt noble family elevated by the murder of King Henri IV -- arrives at Sainte Marie-de-la-mer, she does not arrive alone. With her is her personal confessor and spiritual guide, Père Colombin. A man Soeur Auguste, with secrets of her own, knows all too well and the one man she fears more than any other."

A gorgeous, compelling story set in mediaeval France, Holy Fools has all the ingredients I love in Joanne Harris’s books. There’s a strong, complex heroine with pagan inclinations, a flamboyant villains, a gothic setting, a rich luscious atmosphere and a lot of less than comfortable reflections on the human condition. Harris has a very warts and all approach to portraying people. She doesn’t tend to do clear lines between the wholly good and the wholly bad, and I love this about her work.

First thing first, I adored the overall feel of this books. It's sets, atmosphere, themes and general aesthetic was wonderful. It truly felt unique and rich, something that could easily be translated into a beautiful movie. 

One of the themes running through this novel is that way in which people are often complicit in their own oppression. In trying to please the oppressor, and trying to avoid punishment, we give other names to the witch hunter. We accuse someone else to take attention from ourselves. So often what is called for in oppressive scenarios is a banding together to fight off the tyrant. If there’s one tyrant and many people being mistreated, weight of numbers should fix it, but often it doesn’t. Instead, in trying to protect ourselves, we uphold evil systems and support those who abuse us. It was also a fabulously interesting exploration of the fusion of religious mania, trauma, female repression, redirected sexual need and guilt complexes. 

However, I did have a few problems with this book. First of all was a relationship between Juliette (Soeur Auguste) and her daughter fell flat. The daughter is less an actual person then a plot device, which, unfortunately, completely emotionally undercuts the weight of the story. I also found the relationship between Juliette and Le Merle deeply frustrating. (SPOILERS) For a book supposedly so strongly about female empowerment, strength and sisterhood I found the ending thematically confusing. Le Merle has out right emotionally and physically abused Juliette, once even pimping her out without her consent leading to her being raped. I understand having a dark emotional connection, a sort of deep understanding of each other's darkness, and I truly love these relationships being explored. But I don't think it was in character for Juliette to consent to be with Le Merle, nor should she. While she might have had a special bond with him, this doesn't mean that it would be healthy for them to be anywhere near to each other. 

Age Rating 15+. Some sexual elements but only alluded to really. Small acts of violence. Death, suicide, religious mania and forced exorcism. 

Now I Rise (#2) - Kiersten White

"She has no allies. No throne. All she has is what she’s always had:
herself.

After failing to secure the Wallachian throne, Lada Dracul is out to punish anyone who dares to cross her blood-strewn path. Filled with a white-hot rage, she storms the countryside with her men, accompanied by her childhood friend Bogdan, terrorizing the land. But brute force isn’t getting Lada what she wants. And thinking of Mehmed brings little comfort to her thorny heart. There’s no time to wonder whether he still thinks about her, even loves her. She left him before he could leave her.

What Lada needs is her younger brother Radu’s subtlety and skill. But Mehmed has sent him to Constantinople—and it’s no diplomatic mission. Mehmed wants control of the city, and Radu has earned an unwanted place as a double-crossing spy behind enemy lines. Radu longs for his sister’s fierce confidence—but for the first time in his life, he rejects her unexpected plea for help. Torn between loyalties to faith, to the Ottomans, and to Mehmed, he knows he owes Lada nothing. If she dies, he could never forgive himself—but if he fails in Constantinople, will Mehmed ever forgive him?

As nations fall around them, the Dracul siblings must decide: what will they sacrifice to fulfil their destinies? Empires will topple, thrones will be won…and souls will be lost."

I just love this series and it's reimagining of Vlad the Impaler as a woman called Lada. I love that Lada is allowed to be every bit as mean and bloodthirsty as Vlad, but also, somehow, demand sympathy from the reader. Well, from me anyway. She stands out as one of my favourite characters from all the YA series I've read in recent years. 

This book is - in short - about the fall of Constantinople and Lada's reclamation of Wallachia (you should read the actual history of this, if you're unfamiliar; it is fascinating). It is split into two stories that rarely meet, but both are extremely exciting and compelling.

And I Darken was a well-written and developed book, but I had mixed feelings on the romance and wanted a bit more in the character department. I did not expect either aspect to improve. I definitely did not expect White to fix BOTH of my issues with book one. It's not often a sequel can surpass my expectations so much, but this sequel is undeniably better than book one. Now I Rise both does away with the love triangle drama and far surpasses book one in terms of character work.

Lada doesn't get any less fierce during this book; in fact, she gets even more brutal. Yet she's not completely heartless; she has some very compelling relationship development with several side characters. While she just doesn't have as far to go in terms of development, I still enjoyed her journey and conflict over duty to family.

Then there's Radu, who I didn't particularly care for in the first book. Here, though, he got an incredible character arc. I am still reeling from this character arc. I cannot get over how much Radu has grown and changed. Radu's inner debate over which side truly deserves to win Constantinople really stands out throughout the book, in both his internal and external conflict. It's incredibly difficult to write characters on both sides of the fence, but White executed it brilliantly.

White's writing, while brilliant in the first book, also feels like it has matured. There where so many stunning description. The dialogue feel natural yet poetic. None of these side characters are one-dimensional. Even my least favourite side characters never felt like plot devices but rather fully fleshed out people that demonstrated different ways this war effects people; they're all morally ambiguous and they're all interesting. I must also call out White's brilliant way of writing about difficult topics. All the themes about religion and its role are brought up with delicacy and respect, yet never comes off as didactic or preachy. This series is so good at discussing religion in a non-offensive way.

The queer rep and dismantling internalised misogyny was brought through from the first book. Lada fighting to discover her own way of being a women, Radu feeling like an outsider and constantly unworthy of affection where all handled brilliantly. While this series is technically a YA it feels so much darker, brutal and complex. 

Age Rating 16+ Sex, death, war, murder. 

LOT - Bryan Washington

"Stories of a young man finding his place among family and community
in Houston, from a powerful, emerging American voice.

In the city of Houston - a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America - the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys.

This boy and his family experience the tumult of living in the margins, the heartbreak of ghosts, and the braveries of the human heart. The stories of others living and thriving and dying across Houston's myriad neighbourhoods are woven throughout to reveal a young woman's affair detonating across an apartment complex, a rag-tag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, and a reluctant chupacabra."

I feel this is a truly important book, that highlights difficult questions and intersections of identity, but one that I didn't enjoy. It's a short book with just 220 pages which hold a number of interconnected short stories that are all set in Houston, Texas. We always circle back to the same young narrator and his family but his chapters are interspersed with those of other people in the neighbourhood, usually also young, queer men. I really enjoyed the first few stories since they skilfully set the tone, introduced me to the narrator's world and created a sense of belonging. But the more I read the more settled became the feeling of hopelessness and isolation. The characters are lost, don't dare to dream, have nowhere to go and become cold, cruel and bitter. And what is even worse is knowing that many of these stories are real. 

While I didn't love all of the stories, some really stuck with me, including: "Alief," in which a community reveals a neighbour's affair to her husband but is unprepared for the destruction that this revelation might cause. This one really stuck with me, and I just adored the choice of writing the apartment block as if itself was a living breathing entity. However, much of the prose was quite raw and unbeautiful. 

For some reason I did feel emotional distance from these characters. I’m still trying to figure out where that distance comes from – perhaps it’s because our narrators are men and that distance is Washington showing how toxic masculinity, racism and the brutality of trying to survive in a system designed against you has come to harm men of colour's emotional landscape. Because none of these characters where even close to lovable, or even nice, really.

Age Rating 16+. Mature content. 

The Frolic of the Beasts - Mishima Yukio

"Set in rural Japan shortly after World War II, The Frolic of the
Beasts tells the story of a strange and utterly absorbing love triangle between a former university student, Kōji; his would-be mentor, the eminent literary critic Ippei Kusakudo; and Ippei’s beautiful, enigmatic wife, Yūko. When brought face-to-face with one of Ippei’s many marital indiscretions, Kōji finds his growing desire for Yūko compels him to action in a way that changes all three of their lives profoundly. Originally published in 1961,  The Frolic of the Beasts is a haunting examination of the various guises we assume throughout our lives, and a tale of psychological self-entrapment, seduction, and crime."

Sorry for the break guys, just moved house and couldn't access my laptop. 

This was my first Mishima and I was thoroughly intrigued as to what kind of book a man with such a strange and interesting life story would write. He committed Seppuku in 1970 after failing to start a Nationalistic semi-military coup. Please do me a favour and just google this man, his life was certainly unique and he must have been quite a character. 

As I said, this is my first Mishima and I am walking away not really knowing what to think or how much I really liked this book. As with most theme-heavy, rhetorical works of fiction, the characters in The Frolic of the Beasts read more like archetypal placeholders in an allegory than they do representations of persons but that serves well one of the novel's principal themes: Fate's destruction of agency. With exaggerated characters and recurring poetry that echoes like a refrain, The Frolic of Beasts reads like an tragicomic opera, and who will emerge as hero or villain will be determined by whose story you find most sympathetic.

The prose is romantic with pleasingly rambling meditations on imagery even when describing the acts and aftermath of violence. Atmospheric descriptions of a hot Japanese summer leave the reader feeling even more claustrophobic and here is sense of unrealism to the prose, a rambling disjointed simplicity that recalls the sense of a fable. 

I found the premise of the novel deeply interesting and there where moments of real brilliance. However the character where just too one dimensional for me to fully undertand their motivation or their emotional state. This, unfortunately, undercut the impact of the novel for me. There are many moment where more exploration of the character's inner thoughts would have served to heighten an already interesting plot point. For example (SPOILERS) why does Yuko decide to invite Koji to work for her, what emotion drives that decision? Then when he is there, why does she not initiate the physical relationship that she obviously desires? A sense of guilt, the enjoyment of punishing Koji, the tantalising joy of a pleasure not partaken in? 

Because of this lack of emotional fleshing out I found the side characters and stories increasingly interesting. Kimi, for example, and her personal tragedy and story was impactful and almost fairy-tale like. 

Overall an interesting but not brilliant read. However I would like to trey a few more of Mishima's works to get a better understanding of his writing and thematic style. 

Age Rating 16+. Mature content. Rape, sex, violence.