Review: The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe

A dazzling and darkly comic novel of love, violence, and friendship in the California suburbs

Bunny Lampert is the princess of North Shore⁠--beautiful, tall, blond, with a rich real-estate-developer father and a swimming pool in her backyard. Michael⁠⁠--with a ponytail down his back and a septum piercing⁠--lives with his aunt in the cramped stucco cottage next door. When Bunny catches Michael smoking in her yard, he discovers that her life is not as perfect as it seems. At six foot three, Bunny towers over their classmates. Even as she dreams of standing out and competing in the Olympics, she is desperate to fit in, to seem normal, and to get a boyfriend, all while hiding her father's escalating alcoholism. Michael has secrets of his own. At home and at school Michael pretends to be straight, but at night he tries to understand himself by meeting men online for anonymous encounters that both thrill and scare him. When Michael falls in love for the first time, a vicious strain of gossip circulates and a terrible, brutal act becomes the defining feature of both his and Bunny's futures⁠⁠--and of their friendship. With storytelling as intoxicating as it is intelligent, Rufi Thorpe has created a tragic and unflinching portrait of identity, a fascinating examination of our struggles to exist in our bodies, and an excruciatingly beautiful story of two humans aching for connection.

Review: Wow! Talk about realness, this book has it in spades. I went into this novel not knowing a whole lot about it and if I hadn’t already known that it was fiction I would have taken this book to be a memoir or biography of sorts. I let myself get lulled into that kind of nonfiction tone because this book does read as someone telling you their life story. I did this on audio and so I let the narrator tell me about his life, his feelings and his troubles and I enjoyed every moment of it. 

This is definitely a dark read but coming from a very real place. There are moments of beauty but also moments of pure horror but that is real life and that is obviously where this book is coming from. This book shows what it is like for those of us in society who are not deemed to be ‘norma’ and who don’t ‘fit in’ and how important having a support network is, especially when that is the case. 

Bunny and Michael are really interesting and intriguing characters and I love how overtly different they are from one another and also from everyone else they go to school with. They have that inner turmoil of wanting to fit in with their peers but also knowing that there is something special about them and something which was meant to stand out and it was truly wonderful watching them come to terms with that and watching them bond over that. 

There are definitely some really really dark moments in this book and I loved how honest and real it was but there were also moments of just pure beauty and also moments that made me laugh out loud. I love how this author gave us an ending and allowed us to revisit Michael and Bunny at points in the future. I really enjoyed this book. It comes with some care warnings for sure but if you’re good with the synopsis then I highly recommend this novel to you. 

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: There There by Tommy Orange

Jacquie Red Feather and her sister Opal grew up together, relying on each other during their unsettled childhood. As adults they were driven apart, but Jacquie is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. That’s why she is there.

Dene is there because he has been collecting stories to honour his uncle's death. Edwin is looking for his true father. Opal came to watch her boy Orvil dance. All of them are connected by bonds they may not yet understand.

All of them are there for the cultural celebration that is the Big Oakland Powwow.

But Tony Loneman is also there. And Tony has come to the Powwow with darker intentions.

Review: This novel was a bit of a mixed bag for me. As you know, I don 't read a lot of literary fiction but this one appealed to me and I had seen people with similar reading tastes to me reading so I decided to give it a go. I also read this with a friend which gave me time to put my thoughts together a little more coherently and a little quicker than I might have otherwise done. 

This books definitely felt more like a collection of short stories with a common link than any kind of novel or chronological account. Once I started to think of each section as a separate short story it definitely became easier for me to read. I would definitely recommend going into this book with that mindset rather than trying to make sense of how the characters link together, especially in the very first section. 

This is an own voices native American novel and it had some facts an figures between some of the stories which were a real education and an eye-opener for me. I knew very little about this culture and now I feel I know a little bit more. I also enjoyed the factual sections as a break from the stories in the book as some of them can become quite intense. 

The way the stories all link together become clear in the last couple of chapters, we see how characters are connected and the whole thing culminates in one shared event. I actually thought the ending was pretty clever and I do feel like this is a book that would benefit from a second reading because things definitely get revealed as it goes on that would definitely have helped my understanding of the beginning of the book a whole lot more. If you are looking to add more Native American literature to your collection then this is a great place to start but I would definitely go into it with the mindset of it being a collection of short stories rather than anything longer than that. 

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeymoon

A stunning debut. Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything.

One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.

Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine?

 

Review: This book was very different from what I was expecting. I loved that fact that this book  centres around one character and her view of the world and I really loved that fact that this book was set in Glasgow. It means that instantly the reader can recognise what is going on and can experience everything in the book along with the main character. I thought the writing style made it very easy for us to sympathise with the main character and to see the world through her eyes. 

Eleanor as a character was interesting. I wouldn't say that she was easy to like, but she was definitely easy to sympathise and sometimes empathise with. This meant that the book moved quickly. I still wasn't sure by the end of the book whether I liked her or not. She is very com,plex and yet simple at the same time. She obviously has some social issues as well. The synopsis mentions her drinking and so I expected her to be aware of the drinking but she really wasn't aware that this was an issue, or that anything else in her life was an issue for that matter. 

The relationships that Eleanor builds with other characters is very entertaining. You don't always expect things to go the way they do and neither do Eleanor or the other characters, the book is cleverly written in that sense. Other parts of the book move a little slower and some parts are a little repetitive, but I think that this was a conscious choice on the author's part because Eleanor's life relies on those routines and repetitive tasks. 

I enjoyed reading this book, it was sometimes a little slow for my liking but it did make me laugh in parts and I am glad that I read it. 

To order your copy and see for yourself, just click the link: UK or US

Review: The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion

Would you risk everything for a second chance at first love?

At forty-nine-going-on-fifty, Adam Sharp likes his life. He works part-time in IT consulting, is a leading member of his local pub-quiz and has a stable relationship with his partner, Claire. But there's something he can't shake: a longing for the life he might have had with smart, strong-willed actress Angelina Brown.

Then, out of nowhere, Angelina walks back into his life. All the intensity of their affair twenty years ago resurfaces and Adam must make a decision.

Should he let her go again? Or does he dare to live dangerously? 

  

Review: I got stuck into this book straight away, it is definitely a very compelling read because you know the situation tat Adam is going to get himself into but you don't know how he got there or how he is going to resolve it in the end. The structure of this book is firstly that it is in two parts and the author said himself that those two parts are both very different. The first part is definitely very much Adam reminiscing about his time in Australia, about his music and his past love. And the second part is very much present day and what the consequences of Adam's actions, whatever they might be, are. The first part has flashbacks as well so sometimes we are with Adam in Australia and sometimes we are with him in his present day life pondering the meaning of life. I am a big fan of flashbacks and these work well in the physical copy of the book because you can track where you are, but don't work so well in the audiobook because you can't always tell you have shifted time periods. 

Adam himself is a great vehicle for this novel. He isn't always easy to like but he is very easy to relate to because he is just a normal guy, someone who has a very middle class, suburban life, thinking about what he could have made of his life and the adventures he had in his youth. Unless you are still very young, you will definitely be able to relate to this. Adam doesn't always say and do the things you expect him to, making this quite a challenging read sometimes, but because Adam is the way he is, he moves the book forward and makes it much more of a realistic story. 

There are other supporting characters in the book took, none of whom i particularly liked either but all add a sense of something else to the story, the characters who encourage risk, the characters who play devils advocate, the characters who offer safety and those that offer escapism. I thought the mix of characters was really well-written, even though I didn't like them! 

As I mentioned above, I listened to this book on audiobook and really didn't get on with the narrator. He was quite softly spoken and had little or not intonation. I found that the physical copy of the book I ended up reading was much more dramatic because I could hear more pitch change and excitement in my own head and I also didn't have to turn the volume right up to be able to hear the words! So my advice would be to get the ebook or the physical book of this one. 

If you are expecting a novel the same as the Rosie Project then you are definitely in for a shock but this is an incredibly well written novel. The music is great and I loved the fact that there is a play list to accompany this book, it really brings it alive. I laughed, i related, I cringed and I got angry. This book brought out all the feels and that's why I found it to be an enjoyable read!

Click here to get your copy now: UK or US

Review: All The Good Things by Clare Fisher

Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve to ever feel good again.

But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head.

But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.

What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone-even a 100% bad person-deserve a chance to be good?

Review: Oh I so enjoyed reading this novel. This was one of those books that you read slowly because you want to savour it and take it all in. I haven't read a book like this in a while, i normally devour books so quickly but this one I kept having to put down to ponder and mull over in my mind. This book obviously had such a serious subject matter and is by no means light-hearted but I could see this happening in so many places I have known and in so many situations I have seen and so I could definitely relate, indirectly to parts of this book. 

I loved the premise behind this one. Someone in prison but being encouraged to note down the good things in her life. Beth is such an interesting character because she is most definitely old before her time and so some of the things she discusses with her counsellor and some of the things she has been through seem so much like things people would discuss who have lived a long life, or seen many things over their years on earth. Each chapter starts with one of the good things that Beth is discussing with her counsellor and they are written as if they are a letter to someone. We find out who that person is fairly early on but I won't spoil it for you!

Beth is such a complex character and definitely someone I can recognise. She has been through the foster system, she has been let down by the benefits system, she has fallen through the cracks and we are led to believe that this is why she did the bad thing. We don't find out until the end what that bad thing is, but i did begin to guess throughout the book. Part of me didn't want to find out because I had warmed to Beth so much, but I knew I needed to know and this aspect of the book is so beautifully woven into the story line and so well crafted. I think people will definitely have different opinions of Beth but I really warmed to her and I wish that I could have known her to support her in some way. 

Obviously this book deals with many many issues and many issues that people will not really have come across in their lives except for perhaps on the news. But these issues are woven into the story line amongst real things that we can all relate to. Our first job as a teenager, cinema outings and outings with friends when you don't really have enough money to afford them. Not living up to someones expectations and the fear you feel the first time you are truly on your won. For such  serious book though, this isn't a depressing or even a majorly heavy read. I really enjoyed it and thought that Claire Fisher dealt with these topics in such a sensitive way and just writes beautifully. I really enjoyed reading this novel and would encourage you to read it now. 

To order your copy, just click the link!  UK 

Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett

One day. Sixteen songs. The soundtrack of a lifetime...

Alone in her studio, Cass Wheeler is taking a journey back into her past. After a silence of ten years, the singer-songwriter is picking the sixteen tracks that have defined her - sixteen key moments in her life - for a uniquely personal Greatest Hits album.

In the course of this one day, both ordinary and extraordinary, the story of Cass's life emerges - a story of highs and lows, of music, friendship and ambition, of great love and great loss. But what prompted her to retreat all those years ago, and is there a way for her to make peace with her past?

Daughter. Mother. Singer. Lover. What are the memories that mean the most?

Review: This book was long but enjoyable. It took me a while to get through but that it simply because there is so much detail to it. We are taken back through time as Cass relives moments from her past as far back as when she was a young child. This book is interspersed with songs that Cass has written in her career as a singer and we see her in present day and then we revisit a memory from her past. I read a paperback proof of this novel and found it very easy to keep track of what time of her life we are in, whether it is present day or a flashback. I think my favourite moments were moments from her childhood because we get to see what has made her what she is today. I really liked the structure of this novel, although I think it would work best read in physical form so that it is easy to see what era you are in and also easier to flick back and revisit something that links with what you are reading now. 

I didn't necessarily warm to Cass as a character in her present day persona, I think this may be why I enjoyed the childhood sections of the book more. This is possibly because she is a star and so naturally quite introverted and selfish. This didn't mean that I didn't find her fascinating though. I really enjoyed getting to know her as a character and seeing her interact with others over the years. She didn't really grow on me as the book went on but I didn't strongly dislike her either. I just found her difficult to warm to. 

There are other characters in this novel too but none of them have as high a profile as Cass. I found some of the friends/managers/band members slightly difficult to keep track off, I think this was possibly because they really didn't have as much character development as the main character in this instance because this is very much a book about Cass and about her life. I enjoyed the insight into the music industry that this gave me and loved the fact that the chapters are interwoven with her music. As I say this was a long read so make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to get through this and I would recommend picking this up in hardback because you will want to revisit parts from Cass's past as you get to know her future. I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend this if you are looking for something to get your teeth into. 

To get your copy now, click the link! UK or US

Mid-Month A-Z Readathon Update

So if you don't remember the challenge I set myself at the beginning of this month, I wanted to read the alphabet during the month of May. You can find my TBR post here, and here is my video on the subject, both contain links to the original video which inspired this month long readathon.

I thought it would be good to take a look at how I am doing at the half way point through the month. I included a list of the alphabet and what I was planning on reading for each letter at the end of my post so below you will find a list of the books I have finished, a list of any books I am part way through and the updated list with those letters I have completed highlighted! The list also contains all the buy links in pink, in case you were interested in reading any of these yourself...

Books I have compelted...

(My fabulous guest reviewer read this one so it can still get ticked off the list!)

Books I am partway through...

Updated list...

A The Futures by Anna Pitoniak http://amzn.to/2qvomUU

B A Boy Made of Blocks by Keith Stuart http://amzn.to/2pFCpJA

C The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon http://amzn.to/2qvmprw

D Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler http://amzn.to/2pCH90z

E Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivson http://amzn.to/2oUZpF6

F The Fall of Butterflies by Andrea Portes http://amzn.to/2p31kTb

G Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett http://amzn.to/2pCUmXb

H How to Make out by Brianna Shrum http://amzn.to/2pFxoQW

I One Italian Summer by Keris Stainton http://amzn.to/2pCSVrG

J Jess Chunk and the Road Trip to Infinity by Kristen Elizabeth Clark http://amzn.to/2oV1KQv

K Boys Don’t Knit by TS Easton http://amzn.to/2pFxxns

L The Cafe in Fir Tree Park by Katy Lovell http://amzn.to/2pCUBS5

M I Woke up Dead at the Mall by Judy Sheehan http://amzn.to/2pFvccy

N Never Never by Brianna Shrum http://amzn.to/2oULOxP

O Asking for it by Louise O’Neill http://amzn.to/2p63B0I

P Our Own Private Universe by Robin Talley http://amzn.to/2pCUSo5

Q Queen of Hearts by Colleen Oakes http://amzn.to/2qvvpNa

R Noteworthy by Riley Redgate http://amzn.to/2oUV5ps

S The Best of Adam Sharp by Graeme Simsion http://amzn.to/2pCN05H

T Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone http://amzn.to/2oUZIjq

U The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli http://amzn.to/2pCyV8z

V The Forever House by Veronica Henry http://amzn.to/2p64Flx

W Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner http://amzn.to/2qvq74a

X  Wildcard

Y The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes http://amzn.to/2pFir1B

Z Falling into place by Amy Zhang http://amzn.to/2pCNn08